Ninjago Online
by Packerfan95
Summary: Gamers can rejoice when a new video game and console have been released in Ninjago. A VRMMORPG game unlike any other where one can use their mind to full advantage of the ultimate gaming technology: the NeuroGear. A system where users immerse themselves in a new gaming experience. But when the game go live, a sinister foe traps thousands of players and the only rule is to survive.
1. The New World

**Hey everyone, I'm back and with a new story. Sorry if I haven't post anything in a long while, classes were brutal to me. But I'm on here now, been working a new story as well with my Ninjago-Hero stories as well. My other story is in the process at the moment so this is here for the time being. Anyway, I won't delay you all, enjoy my new story.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The New World**

 _Far into technological creations, many of the best, experienced dare advance into unknown territory. It all starts off into a familiar, large, historical city. Many feel safe within the towering walls that surround the borders. But beyond the walls, marks the unknown. Many dare venture within the unknown, to find more civilization for those to cross the fields, forests, mountains to join and spread. And yet, when venturing to the unknown, comes a price._

 _Known to all, beasts, monsters, enemies too spread across the lands. For those that walk into the land must be equipped to protect themselves. For the defense of yourself, it'll be your fate on the enemy's blade or the belly of a beast if you fail to that. Many are successful to clear the dungeons or caves in the unknown territory, finding new villages or towns to provide safe access for those to cross. But few aren't successful when walking carelessly to find shelter. That's when the life of one is spent in this land._

 _This land, known throughout the outside, to all and is safe. But inside, it is the opposite of safe. A world like anything of life or death. From into the plains and fields to the darkest dungeon or cavern of pure darkness. One must be ready to defend for themselves or for the sake of others. Armed with a sword or any weapons, only they can decide which one survives or not in this new world..._

 _NINJAGO ONLINE_

* * *

Emerald green eyes stared into the personal message that appeared holographically in front of him. A small breath escaped from his nose, but his "body" never required oxygen. In the inside world, he had no need for air. But out of the unknown world, his real body needed it to survive. How he has miss the breeze on his face. Virtual avatar fingers raised themselves by his control to scroll on the personal message to snap his head to the sound of a large growl in the dark cavern next to him that loomed an eerie feeling. In the bright, white room, it was safe for him to stay. But outside, it wasn't safe.

Inhaling a deep breath as he would outside, he closed the personal message of his to let the hologram disappear from his sight and pulled himself to his feet to stand at the doorway. He brushed a bit of golden blond hair from his eyes to reach behind his back to draw out a long sword and gripped it tightly in his right hand. Darkness surrounded him as he stepped out to venture in the unknown territory.

* * *

 **A Couple Months Ago. . .**

"Gah!"

A loud groaned escaped from a teen with orange hair as he laid on the ground to wallow in pain. He clutched his abdomen tightly to try and prevent tears escaping from his eyes. He took a deep breath to peek an eye to stare in the face of a animal with tusks protruding from the sides of its mouth; a wild boar. The animal snorted in his face and turned to leave the teen in pain to have him sigh in defeat. He turned his body to the sounds of giggles escaping from his company to glare at them.

"Wow, who knew you could be defeated from a simple pig barreling into you?" a teen with golden blonde hair remarked.

"Seriously, Gene, you've got to work on that!" another with unkempt black hair laughed.

The ginger glared at the two more to push himself to his knees and brushed the dust off his shirt, a simple blue shirt with a light breastplate armor. He scanned around the grassy ground and grabbed his sword and pulled himself to his feet. His friends continued to laugh a bit as they watched the boar turned to Gene to snort and charged. This time, the teen readied himself to properly stance and positioned his blade. The blade glowed a warm red color as he channeled his energy and focus on the weapon and he gave out a battle cry to charge and swiped his blade through the animal and stopped. The boar shimmered and disintergrated into fragmants to vanish into thin air.

Gene smiled to himself and sheathed his sword into the scabbard attached to his hip and turned to face his friends. Their jaws dropped as their laughter was cut off. "You two need to learn about shutting up then." he smirked and gingerly tapped their jaws closed. "I may not have been a beta player like you two, but I'm a quick learner. That's why I'm the smart one."

The blonde haired teen shook himself awake to the comment to snort. "Whatever, beginners luck." he said.

"Relax, Lloyd," the raven haired teen said. "After all, you and I were the same way during the beta testing. So give him some slack. He does learn quicker than both of us combined."

"Thank you, Brad," Gene commended.

"Yeah, yeah," Lloyd said to smile. "Still nice work then." He turned his gaze to the setting sun to sigh deeply to the warm sunset as it dipped in the horizon. His friends joined him watching the sky slowly turn to warm colors. "Man, what a beautiful sunset. Sometimes I wish I can see these more than what I see from my window in my parent's apartment. Up close."

"Yeah," Brad agreed. "But afterall you live in the big city, so you don't get to see these much. However, you have the penthouse suite so you probably get a better view than we do. Living in the suburbs and all."

A sigh escaped from his throat to look away on that comment. His parents, aunt and uncle may be the owners of a huge company outside of the game they were in. But it didn't mean he, his sister, and cousin enjoy the high lifestyle. He shook the thoughts away to not think about it at the moment and turned back to watch the sun slowly leave. "I wonder what time it is?" he asked to raise his hand.

He swiped it down in front of him, a holographic display screen appeared in front of him. It showed him a display model of his body with stats along the arms, legs, and torso of his. And it also showed options for apparel, weapons, and health along the side. His emerald green moved to the top right corner of the display menu to read the time. It was half past five. He stood a bit shocked to the time to receive glances from his friends.

"Whoops, I guess we skipped supper." Brad said, guilty with a smile. He felt his stomach rumble to laugh innocently with the sound of two more stomachs from the others. "I guess we're all hungry then. Hey, I say we log off and grab some pizza at Buddy's Pizza."

"You would pick that kid arcade of a joke for pizza." Gene commented.

"What? I like their pizza."

Lloyd had to roll his eyes to shake his head with a smile. But he couldn't argue with his friend, he was hungry for pizza. "Alright, alright, we can argue about it later." he said to stand between the two. "We're all hungry, so let's get the pizza and we can fight about it another time. I'm buying."

"Okay, I'm fine with that." Brad agreed.

All three took a step back to pull down their display screens and tapped on the screen to find the menus. But something looked odd to have Lloyd raise a brow. On the menu, he couldn't see the log off option to enable him to leave the game. He glanced up to noticed his friend's screens that they too didn't have the log out icon as well. He tried tapping where the button would be, but nothing was happening.

Something wasn't right.


	2. How It All Started

**Chapter 2: How It All Started. . .**

The pages of a magazine rustled softly as the teen with blonde hair read. His green eyes turned away from the book to train onto a duel computer monitor set as it displayed a live feed of a news report. He smiled softly as he knew what the news was about. Something he's been preparing for ever since he heard about it being released. A new video game, but unlike any other game.

"Thousands are gathered around every video gaming store all through Ninjago." said the news reporter Gayle Gossip. "Today is the releasing date for the brand new console and first game developed and created from Cyrus Borg and his parter Neuro Hisoko from Borg Industries. The new console is known as the NeuroGear developed by Neuro himself with the brand new game. Ninjago Online, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or VRMMORPG for short. The very first game to enable players to play inside the game with the process of their mind than the need of a controller."

"Cyrus Borg says this will be the revolution in technology and gaming for many people." she continued. "Only four thousand NeuroGears have been developed for the time being. But only a hundred Beta testers have already gotten their NeuroGear and copy of the game. He is thankful for their participation to make the game possible. So get your copy today."

The screen went silent after the teen had muted the volume and continued reading his magazine. When he turned the page, he came to an article about the creators of the new game. He stared at the image of a man with long black hair and wire rimmed glasses dressed in a suit but sat on a wheel chair; Cyrus Borg, owner of Borg Industries. And the other image had a younger aged man with white color hair on the sides of his head with black hair along the middle of his hair in a white lab coat, Neuro Hisoko, creator of the NeuroGear. He had to read both articles of their partnership until he was disturbed from a knock on his bedroom door. "Yes?" he said.

"Lloyd, your father and I are going to run some errands." his mother called on the other side. "We'll back around six tonight. So Laurie and Lucas going to be home early to take you out for dinner."

A sigh came from him to the news. His parents were going to be away for business as usual and have to spend another night with his sister and cousin. Nothing he could complain though as he enjoyed their company. Sometimes he wished his parents weren't so busy. "Alright." he mumbled. "Thanks for telling me." He heard the footsteps of his mother leaving his door to slouch back into his chair to glance at the clock. It was eleven in the morning and his parents will gone for seven hours, but it'll be plenty of time for playing his new game. "The opening ceremony of the game starts soon and I have to meet up with Brad and Gene. Better get ready."

He climbed out of his chair to stretch and turned to his bed. On the green covers was the dome shaped helmet of the NeuroGear to snatch it up from his bed and plugged the cord into the ethernet outlet. The helmet hummed to life and Lloyd, dressed into comfortable pajama pants and sweatshirt, positioned himself onto his bed comfortably and set the dome helmet over his head and face to lie his head onto his pillow to close his eyes. "Connect." he commanded to feel his vision turn dark.

* * *

His vision wavered as he slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a new place. From his bedroom, he found him in front of a large courtyard with wide paving stones, tree lined streets and a clean elegant medieval city with a palace in the distance. He stared down at his hands to see them move on his command to clench a fist. Outside the game, his spine was sending electronic signals to his brain which transfer to the NeuroGear to move and command his body as if it was real. This was the technology of the NeuroGear. "Hello Ninjago Online, I'm back." he said to watch more players spawn in the courtyard with him.

* * *

A large smile grew on his face as he ran through the market of the large city filled with players. Vendors of NPC's, Non-Playable Characters, around him were selling many different items in the rows of shops. From weapons, to armor, and even other clothing and apothacary items. It was a thriving city within the game, much like in Ninjago City outside the game. This amazed Lloyd. He came to a stop as he finally spotted two people he was searching for in front of a blacksmith shop to rush over them. The ginger and raven haired teen turned to the sound of rushing footsteps to smile as their friend met up. "Finally found you two," he said, short of breath. Although his virtual body didn't need oxygen unlike his real body. He just wanted to add authenticity. "When you said you were in a blacksmith shop, I had run into eight different shops to find you."

"Sorry, should've been more specific on location." Brad said to rest his mace onto his shoulder. "But Gene was eager to get settle on the game and needed some tips and a weapon."

"Oh haha," Gene retorted, sheathing his sword. "I still appreciate the help, but I think I'm ready to take this game on."

"Not quite, you still need to know how to fight."

"Yep." Lloyd agreed. "Let's head out in the fields to teach Gene to fight and gain some experience points and some money as well. Then we'll venture out and see what this game has to offer."


	3. Trapped

**Chapter 3: Trapped**

Three teens stared in confusion into their menus as they searched. But none of them could find the only button to enable them to log out. They even tried closing their menus and reopening them to find the log out button was still missing. Something didn't seem right to the three when they wanted to leave the game. Even when there's pizza on the line.

Lloyd kept looking at his screen to keep a brow raised as they looked through his options to find a back door to log off the game. He couldn't find any other way to leave. Not even his friends found any way. Something really didn't feel right. But there had to be a reason maybe.

"Maybe the game is bugged." said Brad. "After all this game had gotten off the Beta so maybe the servers had a hiccup and their IT team is working on it. So I guess we just have to sit tight and have to get pizza a little later."

"But doesn't it seem odd," Gene started. "If the IT team knew the log out button was being buggy, they would've fixed it during the release of the game. Not wait all day to fix it now. Something feels odd right now." Lloyd had to look at him to nod. Brad just shrugged his shoulders.

A loud bell blared across the fields to have the three startled and turned towards the large city where all the players started. They each raised a brow to wonder what was going on, but their eyes widen as each was surrounded in a pillar of blue light to shield their eyes. The light finally faded to have Lloyd open his eyes to have him gasp as he found himself in the large paved courtyard, surrounded by all other players with Brad and Gene next to him. Murmurs of confusion became loud from the players as they commute with one another.

The warm orange sky soon became cloudy with flashes of purple lightning striking. Everyone soon became quiet as the thunder became louder with the wind howling. Some players tried to leave the courtyard to seek shelter, but to find a invisible force containing them inside. The purple lightning struck again and everyone's virtual blood turned to ice to the sound of a deep, cackling laugh as a pair of red, triangular eyes broke through the purple clouds, staring down menacingly. The howling wind stopped with the occasional flash of lightning. All players felt frozen to their feet at the entity before them.

"Greeting, players," the entity said darkly with a deep raspy voice. "You may not know me, but I now know you all through your NeuroGear. I am known as Overlord. A boss to be beaten in this so called game. But I was to be destroyed, deemed as too powerful. But I am now a virus and I have taken control the game and now you."

Hushed murmurs filled the courtyard again to have the Overlord's eyes narrow. "Silence!" he demanded to have everyone become quiet. "As by now, some of you may noticed one key thing that you cannot do. Leave my domain. I have eliminated your hope to leave this world. And now it's time to play a new game. A game of life. . .and death."

Lloyd turned to his friends to raise a brow, but he felt his virtual heart racing. A game of life and death? It sounded too strong to make him wonder what this virus wanted. He was more surprised the virus was able to disable everyone's log out button. How?

"By now, twenty players have already tried to leave the game, all have failed miserably." the Overlord continued. "When your life bar is dead, so shall the player as well. And when you are dead, you all become mine." Lloyd's heart stopped dead to the words. Everyone around him became tensed to the news. They heard heavy footsteps pouring into the front entrance of the courtyard to have players move aside scared as enemies with grey skin, dressed in crimson red samurai armor marched in. They fanned out and stood guard of the entrance. The blonde teen had to count the enemies, twenty of them. "As you see by example, twenty players have already paid the price, they are now my legion, soon I will have control of all of you. And to inform you as well, everyone outside of the game has been notifed of your doom."

Lloyd watched as multiple screens surround the sky, news updates of Ninjago Online. People mourning about those trapped inside the game. Gayle Gossip in frantic about telling the latest story about the trapped players. And Cyrus Borg and Neuro in frantic as well about the situation. A knot formed in Lloyd's stomach if he had one right now to the thought of him losing all of his health to shatter into pieces and soon become a member of the Overlord's army. This couldn't be happening.

"There is a way though to leave the game." the Overlord said to have the screens vanished. "Defeat me and my army, all still alive will leave the game, as well as my army. But the more the players join my ranks, the more stronger we become. So will it be your life, or will it be your goal to defeat me? You will find out as you will try. I will come out and fight you when I am ready. Good luck." The howling wind and crashing thunder returned to have a rouge bolt strike the Overlord's army to disappear from the courtyard and the virus laughed as his eyes vanished into the sky. The descending sun soon returned to leave every player in the courtyard.

All were silent to comprehend what they heard. Trapped inside a virtual game and the only way out was to defeat the virus. But to those that lose their life bar, will join the Overlord's army. "This can't be happening!" a female player cried out and soon the courtyard become loud with players crying or screaming in anger toward the virus. Even Lloyd felt scared more to the thought as he wondered about his parents and sister and cousin. This really couldn't be happening now.

He turned to his friends to their panicked state and grabbed their arms. "Come on, let's leave quick." he said and dragged them out of the courtyard to leave the devistated players. They all headed closer to the wall of the city and ducked into an alley. Brad tried to shake the thoughts out of his head to what he heard, but they bore into his mind. Lloyd had to sigh to feel helpless as his friends to become trapped in this world. "Okay...let's take a moment and start heading out."

Gene had to lift his head as he sat down on the ground. "What do you mean?" he asked.

His hand moved down in front of him to open his menu and tapped on the screen to pull out a map. "By the time everyone has stopped panicking, they're going to ransack this place for weapons and items to take on the Overlord" Lloyd explained. "And go out hunting before everyone else gets a chance. If we leave now, we can get a head start on experience points and coins and head into the next town. The nearest one is only a few miles from here."

Curious eyes had to study the map, but both had to turn to each other about the plan. Going into the next town alone together didn't seem very good. They only went a mile outside of the city to hunt, they didn't know what else there was in the wild. "I don't like the idea, Lloyd." said Brad. A frown had to form on the blonde's face. "We can't go out alone, we won't stand a chance in the wild. Like everyone here, we should find a group and team up. The Overlord said the stronger his army becomes, the stronger he becomes. If we formed our own army, we can take him on and leave this game."

"I agree with Brad on this." Gene said. "Right now, we can't leave these people like this, there's even little kids in this game. We need to go back and group up with other players to survive better. We can have our own guild."

Lloyd couldn't believe to what he was hearing. His friends wanted to stay behind when he wanted them to leave as soon as possible before resources were scarce. He had to shake his head. "I can't." he replied to sigh. "I hate to this to you but I want to leave as soon as possible. Not most people want to be part of guilds, and they're going to do the same as we are if we don't go now."

The two had to look at the blonde teen to shake their head. "We're sorry, Lloyd," said Brad. "But we're going to stay and help these people. If you want to go now, that's fine. But it's better if we stick together."

A sigh came from him and clenched his fists together to prevent any tears escaping and turned. He ran. Both Brad and Gene were stunned to what they were witnessing as their friend was running away. "Lloyd, wait!" both shouted to him, but he didn't stop. They couldn't help with the stray tears cascading down their face as tears fell down Lloyd's cheeks. They wanted to run after him, but they felt frozen to the paved road to move.

His breathing was shallow and quick as he ran out into the fields to stop and glance at the city walls. He felt guilt swelling in his throat to what he did to his best friends, but he knew they won't forgive him. But he wanted to leave the city before things became heptic. He sighed again as he'll see them again sometime and somewhere in the future. He just felt it. He turned to keep running down the dirt road.

The thoughts of his family flooded his mind as he ran, hoping he'll see them soon, but he'll have to be strong if he wanted to beat the game. A lone wolf spawned in front of him to charge and Lloyd drew his sword to charge with his blade glowing green as he shouted and sliced the beast. It shattered to disappear as he ran. "I'm not going to die in this game," he said to himself as he ran. "I'm going to do everything I can to become stronger and leave this game alive. With everyone else."


	4. Trying To Resolve The Issue

**Chapter 4: Trying To Resolve The Issue**

Panic swam to a teen with burnet shaggy hair as he rushed into the large apartment complex and glanced around. The entire living room was silent and empty to have the teen more worried. He heard quivering breaths follow behind him as a girl with red hair had rushed after him to try and catch her breath. But her light blue eyes were wide with worry as his hazel grey eyes. No one was home, all except for one person. And he hasn't responded to any of their calls or text messages. This worried them more.

Both teens quickly rushed to the second level of the apartment to reach a closed bedroom door. The door knob rattled to realize it was locked to panic more. The girl finally rushed to the kitchen to retrieve the key and rushed back to her cousin and unlocked the door. They barged in to feel their hearts stopped. They were too late.

A teen in a green sweatshirt and pajama pants laid on the bed with a dome headpiece over his face. The NeuroGear. They turned to his dual monitor system to watch as the live feed of the nationwide accident take hold to the players trapped in a game. A game where a virus had taken control of players and can't let them log out of the game.

The girl burst into tears as she rushed to her brother's side as he laid still, knowing he can't leave the game. The boy screamed out of anger to bang his fist to the wall to let a few tears out as he wished to come home earlier with his cousin. This filled them with grief and anger as the limp boy was conscious in a different world and forever trapped. The burnet finally took a deep breath to calm his anger and turned to his cousin to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder to have her raise her head to reveal her redden eyes. "There's nothing we can do now, Laurie." he said, sorrowfully. "We. . .just have to wait then, for Lloyd's sake."

The red haired girl glanced at her little brother to feel the tear pour down more to shake her head. She couldn't wait. Who know long it would be. "I can't Lucas," she said, barely in a whisper. "I want my baby brother back and I can't bear the fact that he's trapped in a video game. I just can't! Niether can you!"

Her words struck him down to sigh and nod. It was true to him and couldn't hide it. His little cousin, who he grew up with, was trapped in a video game and didn't want him getting hurt or something bad happen to him in the game as the virus said when he announced it to the public. His aunt and uncle entitled him and Laurie to take Lloyd out for dinner today, but the day went south as the teen was trapped now and they couldn't do anything.

"I can't either, Laurie."

* * *

 **A Day Later. . .**

Angry footfalls stomped on the marble flooring as someone made his through the large lobby. His dark eyes glanced around the technological lobby to snort as he made his way through. The lobby was crowded with angered citizens and news reporters as they questioned the employees with numerous questions. The man with grey wavy hair barged his way through the crowd, seeking the one who caused everything. He had to be here somewhere in Borg Industries, it had his name after all. Garmadon had to find Cyrus Borg.

The man finally made his way past the crowd despite when some of the employers tried to push him back. But they immediately stopped when they recognized him to step back and let him through. The lobby was empty in front of him now and he glanced at the escalators to the second floor as someone was making her way down. But not just anyone. . . human. She had grey like skin with circuits plastered to her skin. Silver long hair with bright green eyes in a purple dress; Cyrus' assistant, P.I.X.A.L.

"Mr. Garmadon!" the android exclaimed, surprised. She glanced past the man's shoulder to see someone catch up to him, a woman with greying hair in a ponytail with round rimmed glasses. "A-and Mrs. Garmadon! What an unexcepted surprise? We weren't expecting the C.E.O and his mistress of Ninjago City Tower to be in Borg Industries. What could we do for you?"

His dark eyes bore into the android as he could see her become a bit nervous to his presence. As if she already didn't know. "I don't have time for you, droid." he grimaced as stormed his way up the stairs to head for the elevators. "I need to see Borg. Now." He called for the elevators with his wife following behind him.

"P-Please sir," P.I.X.A.L begged as she caught up with the two and slipped into the elevator before it closed on her. She felt the car rattle and soon ascend to the top floor. The glass window showed a view of Ninjago City as the three rode up, but Garmadon wasn't interested as he glared at the door and could feel a storm brewing stronger in his chest. "Mr. Borg is incredibly busy right with the accident happening and is doing everything he can to fix this." She saw his glare to nod. "I understand that your youngest son is trapped, and thousand of other players are, but he and Neuro are doing everything in their power to remove the virus and free them."

"And clearly he hasn't found anything yet if he's the creator of it." the man hissed.

"Garmadon, you need to be reasonable though." Misako stated to try and calm him down. Even she was desperate that her son was stuck in a video game. But she was more calm than her husband. "Lloyd is trapped, yes. And he's in the hospital for care, but please listen to them and not be rashed about this." The man glanced at his wife to sigh a bit, but kept his glare on the doors.

The elevator finally stopped and the doors slid open to reveal the large office of Cyrus Borg and all three stepped out. Cyrus jumped from his seat from the sight of the Garmadon's entering with P.I.X.A.L trying to coax them to stop. But he could see the anger in the man's eyes as he got closer. But as Garmadon got closer, he slowed his pace as there were two more people sitting across Cyrus' desk and they turned to him. A man with greying hair as his with a small beard forming and a woman with curly burnet hair; his brother and sister-in-law. "Wu, Stella, what are you two doing here?" he demanded and turned to P.I.X.A.L. "And I thought you said you weren't expecting the C.E.O's of Ninjago City Tower. That didn't include my brother being here before me."

"Garmadon, stop." Wu stated to have his older brother turn to him. "We knew that you would storm in here to _talk_ with Cyrus. But Stella and I are already assessing the situation so we can resolve this civally and not with harm. Knowing you right now because of Lloyd."

"Stay out of this, brother." Garmadon exclaimed. "This is my argument right now and I want my son out of that game."

"P-Please, Mr. Garmadon, just here me out." Cyrus said, nervously. He grabbed the wheels of his chair to pull himself out and around to meet up with the man. But he stayed a bit distance away from him for precautions. "I understand that you and thousands of others are concerned for their loved ones and friends who are victims of this virus, but also have to understand this isn't our doing."

He wheeled himself to the large computer monitor to have the wireless keyboard in his lap to type on it. The screen lit up to show everyone a diagram of the game schematics, binary codes, and blueprints of the NeuroGear. Then an image of the Overlord Virus eyes appeared on the screen to have Cyrus sigh and turned his chair to clear his throat. "During the development of the game, we created enemies to challenge players on their skills and abilities. There are even what known as bosses, highly challenge and difficult enemies for players to test themselves to see if they could defeat such a thing. The Overlord was actually a boss for the game, but something in its schematics and codes got corrupted and became a virus. So we had to scrap the idea and delete it."

"Unfortunetly," he continued while pushing his glasses back up. "The virus found itself back into the game and now it has controll of the game. We've been trying to use the antivirus that deleted it before, but the virus has been able to destroy it before we could get close to it. Now it could be anywhere in the game since it knows it's on to us." He typed on the keyboard to have the screen closed off and wheeled his way to Garmadon. "As you can see, we're doing everything in our power to try and kill this virus and get everyone out, it's going to take time. If anything, I would take full responsibility, but for now, the best we can do is be patient and work our way to end this."

The man's glare loosen finally to see the truth in his eyes to sigh. Garmadon couldn't be patient though. Not with his son, one of the three heirs to the family company trapped in a game. Maybe his brother and wife were right for now, he was being rash.

* * *

"What do you mean you can't unplug people from the game?" Laurie exclaimed to the creator of the NeuroGear, Neuro. The girl and her cousin followed the man through the lab and workshop where the device was created. But Laurie didn't care to glance around and just kept her pace to keep up with him. Lucas was just behind them. "Isn't it just like any other game console where you can just unplug it to get someone's attention? I've done it to my brother before just so he could clean his room when he was nine."

The man gazed at her to roll his eyes to sigh as she just wouldn't give up with the questions. How she and Lucas gotten past security and found him was unbelievable. And Neuro knew Cyrus would be busy with Garmadon when he found out that Lloyd Garmadon was trapped in the game with others. These people were relentless. "It's not that simple, okay." he said to swipe his badge to a console and the glass door slid open to reveal his personal workshop and stepped in. The two quickly entered behind him before he had a chance to close it on them. He sighed. "You don't give up do you?"

"Look we just need an answer." Lucas said. "My dad right now is trying to resolve the situation before my uncle storms in and ruins it. He's trying to help your boss with the press." It's only been a day since the virus attacked and trapped the players and tension was beginning to rise. Not only to the press on Cyrus, but with family as well with his uncle wanting his son out of the game. "Just please explain to us why we can't get people out by unplugging them from the NeuroGear?"

Neuro sighed to slump in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Surely he thought the eldest heir to Ninjago City Tower would've known something about technology. But as he said, it wasn't simple. This was far advanced gaming technology that required a mind to control the avatar. The description was right there.

Neuro pulled himself out of his chair to walk over to the chalk board in his shop to quickly etched the NeuroGear and a person and turned to the two. "I'm pretty sure you two understand that the NeuroGear is controlled by the brainwaves you brain interprets as thoughts." he said to see them nod. "Well, the NeuroGear shuts the body movement down to ensure the user isn't up and moving to danger themselves. However, if you quickly remove the user from the NeuroGear, it'll enable to remain motionless. A coma like state."

"Which is why you enable them to log out." Lucas interrupted. "To ensure their mind responds to the brain and spine and slowly wake up than suddenly awake like a nightmare."

"Precisely."

"But because of the virus, they can't log out and remain controlling the avatar for until they can't defeat it then." Lucas continued to sigh. His cousin, who he treated as a little brother, was now motionless while controlling his avatar. And he always been there for his cousin to protect him, like from bullies when in middle school. He couldn't bear the thought of his cousin being attacked in the game from enemies of the game or other players. He glanced at a NeuroGear that sat on a workbench to snatch it and placed the dome headgear over his face. "I'm going in to help Lloyd!" he stated. "Connect!"

Laurie jumped to her feet to rush to her cousin, but Neuro remained unfazed to his attempt to snort to his antic. Child's play there. Lucas remained still and removed the NeuroGear to look at it quizically to see the ethernet cable was connected but he wasn't connecting into the game. "Please, Mr. Wu," Neuro sighed to snatch it back from him and placed it on his workbench. "That's only a prototype. Plus we tried to send a reconnaissance team to find the Overlord Virus. Even they couldn't connect into the game. Basically you just wasted two minutes of your time."

Lucas sighed to scoff a bit to slump onto the workbench. So much for helping his cousin. He couldn't do anything now to protect him. Sounded like he was babying him, but he wanted to help him. "So what can we do then?" he wondered.

"The best you can do is wait for a miracle." Neuro said, sincerely. He walked over to his computer terminal to type on the keyboard to have the screen light up and diverted to the larger monitor next to the chalkboard to display a list of name. "However, when you said Lloyd Garmadon it brought up a thought to do some old research. And what do you know, his name does appear in our Beta test when we sent out a hundred copies to test the game. And he actually proved outstanding results when playing and testing our game. He closed the list to turn to the two teens with a small smile. "Knowing your brother and cousin, I'm pretty sure he'll be fine on his own."

The two teens glanced at each other nervously, but had to agree. From having dinner with Lloyd, he had always told them his tales when testing the game and how he fought monsters and even dualed against his friend Brad for fun when he was a Beta tester too. Knowing Lloyd and his adventures in the game, he could handle himself then. But with the virus taking control of the game, it worried them that the virus might've made the game more difficult. But Neuro was right for one thing, despite that they were worried for Lloyd, and when everyone else was worried for a loved one trapped in the game.

They had to wait for a miracle. But how long could that take?


	5. Four Weapons

**Chapter 5: Four Weapons**

 **A Couple Months Later. . .**

The yowl of a creature rang through the dark dungeon. Metal clashed against metal as a teen with blonde hair fought against an armored skeleton. His foe's HP, Health Points, bar was low, but his was halfway depleted. The skeleton swung his mace at the player and Lloyd strafed to the side to avoid a powerful blow from the weapon and stepped back. He drew in a deep breath and held his sword back.

The golden longsword glowed a bright red aura as he positioned himself steadily. The skeleton took a step forward and the teen charged to slice through the armor. A red gash formed across the metal chestplate of armor as the foe fell back. He shattered into pieces before he made contact to the stone ground. A sigh came from Lloyd as he sheathed his sword to the scabbard on his back and a small screen popped in front of him. It congratulated him for leveling up, giving him experience points, reviving his HP bar and increasing his health by a few points, and a few gold coins.

Silence was all around him now to sigh again and stretched. He felt fatigue even though his health and strength was revived. His body outside the game would probably feel sore from this endurance. The teen decided it was time to leave and turned to head for the exit. A few moments later, he finally saw a blinding light at the end of the tunnel and stepped out of the dungeon. He had to shield his green eyes to the light to wince and the light faded away to stare at the forest below him from the mountain side. And through the forest, he could see a small town to begin walking toward it.

The small town was almost the same as the large city since the beginning of the Overlord's control of all players. Paved cobblestone paths lined the roads, small wooden buildings with clay tiled roofs were scattered around the small town. Cherry blossum trees were in the streets. And NPC's were out in the rice ponds of the town for the game to civilized as other players filled the market streets.

Lloyd had taken note that many of the players were more calm than before since the day of the virus. Many of the players had teamed up together to venture into Ninjago, others were loners like him. But some players have lost their lives and became part of the Overlord's army. Many were calm to the game, others were still frightened. But everyone moved on, he had to wonder about his family and friends he left those months ago. He still regretted it.

The teen collided into something solid to break out of his thoughts to realize he ran into a building. A two story building with an open entry way that reminded him of a garage. He glanced up to read the sign. "Four Weapons?" he pondered to peer in. He glanced around to see shelves of armor and weapons mounted on the walls. A furance was in the back of the shop with a player pounding on the anvil with a iron ingot.

Lloyd had to study the teen with spiky brown hair donned with a leather apron as he pounded the ingot with a mallet. His brows were stitched together in concentration as he forged the metal until the ingot glowed brightly and morphed until the light died. The large sword was now on the anvil to have the burnet study the weapon to groan and tossed it aside. "Not good enough." he grumbled to rest his head in his hands.

"I think it was great." Lloyd spoke up to have the teen lift his head. He studied the many different weapons scattererd on the dirt floor. "Your blacksmithing skills are amazing and I doubt I can do anything better."

"Oh who asked you?" the blacksmith grumbled. "I'm not working on making perfect weapons for others. I'm busy on making a stronger weapon for myself."

"Why?"

"Because I've been stuck in this game for six months and I'm going to kill the Overlord virus myself and free everyone from this."

Lloyd blinked. This guy was on a suicide mission to go against the Overlord virus alone. "You do realize that's what he wants right?" he asked. "He wants people to go on a suicide mission to have them join his army. Already there's a hundred players dead in his ranks and it's going to be a hundred and one if you do this. Plus you wouldn't even know where he's hiding."

The burnet glared at him for a moment to open his display screen. He tapped on the screen to remove his blacksmith uniform and redress him into samurai attire with a red headband wrapped around his head. "Like I said, who asked you." he retorted. "No one, that's who." He checked his katana attached to his belt and began to head out. "Now if you excuse me, Four Weapons is closed until further noticed and I'm going out hunting."

The blonde haired teen had to roll his eyes to the samurai. Clearly, he didn't hear a thing he had said about the Overlord. It was suicide if he challenged the Overlord. Before the burnet left his sight, he grabbed a hold of his shoulder armor to halt him. "Listen to me," he began. "This is ludicrious to go out and find him. You don't stand a chance to him and his army. I don't think you're leveled enough to go against him."

Glancing over his shoulder, the burnet glared at the blonde and quickly drew out his katana and swung it at him. Lloyd quickly rolled to the side to avoid the blade and drew out his sword to parry the samurai's sword. His glare bore into him as he charged toward Lloyd and his sword slowly charged a dark red aura as he charged it and swung it. The golden sword glowed a bright green aura and struck the katana. A powerful force shook both of them and they flew away to hit their backs against the walls of the blacksmith shop.

A groan escaped from both teens, but the burnet quickly jumped to his feet and came after Lloyd again to have both teens engage their swords in combat. Outside the shop, a crowd of players gathered to the commotion. Some cheered to the fight, while others remained quiet; taking bets.

Amongst the crowd, a player with auburn hair and a vertical scar, dressed in a blue long sleeve tunic and metal armor around his upper chest and right arm, began to squeeze his way through the tight crowd to get a better view of the commotion.

When he got to the front of the shop, he froze to the sight of the two teens engaging in combat to rush in. "Hey, let's stop the fight right now before someone gets killed." the auburn haired teen said, frantically. The crowd behind shouted at him to leave and enjoy the fight while the two kept fighting until he watched the samurai kick the blonde teen to the ground and held his katana above his chest. The auburn yelped a bit and reached into his pouch attached to his hip and pulled out a small black box and pressed the button. Two barbed stingers attached to metal wires sprung out and struck into the teen's neck to scream in pain as his muscles contracted to lose his weapon and collasped back. Both the auburn and Lloyd sighed while the crowded disowned them for the fight and left.

"Thanks for the help," Lloyd said as he pulled himself up to his feet to sheath his sword.

"Hey, no problem," the auburn said as he walked to the incapicatated samurai and carefully pulled the barbed stingers out of his neck. The samurai winced. He placed the black box back into his inventory menu. "So what happened to have him almost kill you? Does he know you can't kill other players when in towns or cities?"

"Well-" Lloyd began.

"What is wrong with you!?" the burnet bellowed. "You could've killed me with that...taser you used on me. I feel like you gave my body a violent shock outside the game."

"Ah ah," the auburn retorted. "All I done is stun you. And you know the rules here, you can't kill other players when in towns or cities. So I was only doing a civic duty to protect players."

"What are you then? A sheriff?" Lloyd asked.

"Nope, just a normal player, looking a way to help get out of this world. My name is Jay by the way." He held his hand out to the two.

"Lloyd," the blonde replied and shook his hand.

The burnet glared at him still as Jay held his hand to him and shoved it away and used his sword to pick himself up. "Kai," the samurai grumbled and sheathed his weapon. "Now if you excuse me again, I'm going out to find a way to defeat the virus."

"And this fight broke out because of that." Lloyd pointed out. "You're going to get killed if you try doing this." A thought came to him as he thought the day of the virus when his friends Brad and Gene said they should team up. And the blonde teen had done the opposite. "Look, if you're going to do this, you should at least have company with you."

"No way, I work alone." Kai exclaimed. "I don't work with a kid and a low level player that looks like he has nothing."

"I'll have you know I'm the same level as you and my crafting skills are through the roof." Jay stated. "That's how I was able to taze you. But an adventure to find a way to defeat the Overlord sounds exciting. I'm in. I could use some exploration right now."

Kai turned to the auburn to glare at him. "Like I said, no way." he hissed and turned to leave the blacksmith shop. "I'm out of here."

The two watched the samurai trek through the city to sigh. They both knew he was going to get himself killed if he went alone. They watched him leave the city walls and turned to each other. "He's going to get killed, I just know it." Lloyd said and fixed his green coat. "We have to go after him."

"Way ahead of you." Jay agreed and opened his menu to tap on the screen. A flash of light appeared quickly and in his hands was blue shaft of a spear with the spearhead of two lightning bolts in triangular formation. He twirled the spear around and attached it to his back. "Alright, now I'm ready. Let's go before he wanders into no man's territory." Both nodded and raced out of the town to follow after the stubborn samurai.


	6. Teaming Up

**Chapter 6: Teaming Up**

The sounds of birds were around him as he moved through the large forest. Tall trees surrounded him as he walked down the dirt path, the afternoon sun loomed over him. He felt thankful the trees were providing shade from the virtual sun and how he could feel the sun's warmth through his NeuroGear. It still amazed him how technology could make him feel temperatures, hunger, taste of the virtual food the game provides. Kai shook the thoughts out of his head and continued to stroll down the path, hoping to reach the next town by nightfall.

Far behind him, two individuals kept their distance from the samurai as they trailed him. Although they weren't on the path, they moved through the foliage of the forest, concealing their presence. Lloyd had an advantage of his green coat to camouflage himself unlike Jay with his armor and blue shirt. They both stopped as the samurai paused in his tracks to remain quiet and didn't move. Minutes passed and Kai began moving again. Both sighed to follow after him again, keeping distance.

"So, exactly why is he going after the Overlord virus?" Jay whispered.

Lloyd had to shrug his shoulders. Even after his fight with the samurai, he was still puzzled even after what he told him it was suicide. Kai just doesn't understand then to be rash. "We've been stuck in this game so months," he said. "So being stubborn, he thinks he can kill the Overlord virus himself. But yet, it's suicide. So I tried to warn him and stop him, until he attacked me and well. . .you stopped the fight."

"Hmm. . ." Jay pondered. "Interesting then, but do you think there is a way to stop the virus?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I just don't know what other players think though."

Nodding, Jay agreed. He's been wandering on his own, defending for himself. Yet this was the first time he had teamed up with another player. Was Lloyd as the same then? He glanced back where Kai was to raise his scarred brow. Kai was gone, disappeared from their sights. The auburn turned to Lloyd as he looked puzzled as well. Where did the samurai go?

Jay suddenly felt cold steel against his throat to hitch his breath to glance over his shoulder as he saw Kai glaring at him. Lloyd had had jumped to the presence of the samurai and quickly drew his sword out, but didn't dare to attack for the safety of his partner. The word felt odd to him when he's a loner. The problem was that they were outside of a town, Kai could kill Jay on the spot.

"You didn't think I heard you a mile away?" Kai began to release his hold on Jay and sheathed his katana. "Because I knew you were following me since we left Ignacia Village. I thought I told you to back off since I work alone."

Jay had to rub his throat to try and calm himself down. He didn't know what felt worse. Kai surprising him to slit his virtual throat like an assassination. Or his other encounters in the game had thrown at him. Both seemed the same then. "How did you know we were behind you?" he wondered.

Sighing, Kai rolled his chocolate brown eyes. "Because I have Hunter Senses," he replied. "This perk allows me to hear long distance and see my prey. So that's how I was able to hear you clumsy footsteps by a mile away. Now tell me, why are you following me?"

Lloyd had to sheath his gold sword onto his back. So much for the stealth if Kai was able to hear them then. Lots of players have different perks or abilities to help them survive in the game. Such as Kai's perk or his, Dual Wielder to fight with two weapons. But Lloyd never used it much as he didn't have another sword to fight with. "Look, we were only doing it to help you." he stated. "When we heard you were going to take on the virus, it's just suicide to go against him. So we trailed you so we can help you."

"Well I don't need it, okay." Kai hissed. "Turn back now, before I send you to his army. We're outside of the town." He reached into his belt to pull out two throwing knives. Both glowed a bright red; threating to throw them at them.

His back went a bit rigid to the thought. Kai was right. Jay had to turn to Lloyd to see his face had harden to glare at the samurai. "Ignacia Village is long gone from here," he stated. "We won't make it back to safer ground before the Dark Creatures are unleashed. So you're already sending us to our death if you make us turn back. So it'll be guilt and blood on your hands by doing this to two players."

Silence came from the three to have the two glare at each other. But a sigh of annoyance came from Kai to the thought. The aura died in the knives to attach them back into his belt. The Dark Creatures were strong beasts that spawn in the night around these areas of the game, only few players have challenged the creatures for glory. They weren't successful. "Fine," Kai said and began to walk back onto the path. "But when we reach the next town, we're going our separate ways. I'm not babysitting two lackey players."

Lloyd kept his harden stare on him while Jay stared at him nervously. Kai sounded strict and serious about killing other players, they weren't sure if he was serious or actually done it. Both watched the samurai stopped to turn to them and soon began to follow after him. "You think he would've really killed us?" Jay whispered, nervously.

"Doubt it." Lloyd replied. "But I feel like we'll be the first if we cross his line."

* * *

Time to seem become long as the three walked down the path. The afternoon sun was no longer high in the clear blue sky, slowly descending. Lloyd had to check the time before; four o'clock in afternoon. Plenty of time before nightfall and the Dark Creatures were in the fields. The dirt path they walked on stretched far into the forest, no signs of civilization yet in their view. Not even the map said they're any closer to the next town. They pondered how much farther they'll reached safer ground.

Lloyd had his menu opened as he browsed through his inventory while walking, glancing upward to see where he was going. He had to take note of any supplies he will need when reaching into the next town. Some health potions and even trading some treasure he had found in the dungeons. "So where are you guys from?" he heard Jay ask. The blonde teen closed his menu to glance at the auburn. "You know in IRL? Where you guys come from?"

IRL, a meaning in the game that is known as In Real Life. Lloyd never mentioned to anyone about his information before when in taverns or player shop owners. But the question from Jay felt more comfortable and secured from him as if he won't blurt it out to any other players. "Well, I'm from Ninjago City." he replied. "My parents and aunt and uncle own a company together from my grandfather that I never met. So I spend most of my time with my cousin and older sister. You?"

"I'm come from a. . .shanty place." Jay replied, sheepishly. "I live nearby the Sea of Sands and my parents actually own the junkyard there."

"How are you able to play this game if you live in a junkyard?" Lloyd wondered.

"We happen to have great internet connection. You'd be surprised. Plus I'm sure my parents quickly moved me to the nearest hospital, like other players so we're not malnourished. Where are you from, Kai?" The samurai had to glance over his shoulder to the auburn and turned back to huff. "Oh come on, don't be such a sour grump. We should be able to know each other, not like we'll ever meet each other in IRL."

A sigh came from Kai to have Jay smirk in victory as he got him. Lloyd felt a bit surprised that he won over Kai to the sound of his voice. He thought it being stern with him like how he won him over to have them tag along. "I came from the real Ignacia Village." he replied. "And. . .I felt actually happy to know that they made my hometown very accurate, but also ancient."

Lloyd had to give him a soft smile. He understood what it was like. The starting town where everyone began was Ninjago City. "That's the point of the game from Cyrus and Neuro." he said. "They wanted everything to be very accurate to the game and yet ancient."

"But to me though, I actually felt relieved to see Ignacia Village in the game." Kai sighed. "It felt real, nostalgic almost. Like where my home is and the thought of my younger sister outside of the game."

"You're homesick then?" Jay asked. "And you have a sister? Does she like video games and the color blue?"

The samurai had to halt in their path and glared at Jay. He quickly drew his sword while it quickly glowed a bright red aura and swung it, but stopped before it sliced the auburn's head off. Jay gulped, the verge of collapsing. Not again with his sword. "First off, back off." Kai hissed and the aura died and sheathed his katana. "Second, she doesn't like video games nor plays them much and she's my little sister. So you're not coming within inches of her." Jay nodded, scared. "Good." He turned to continue the down the path.

Jay had to rub his throat again as they followed the samurai. Lloyd had to crack a laugh to Jay's almost impending doom to receive a glare from him. "Well now we know the line to not cross with him." he said to keep pace with the samurai.

The auburn kept a glare on the two to follow after them. He had to agree though. He knew which line to not cross with the samurai. All because he asked a simple question. "Yeah. . ." he agreed, quietly. "And I'll be glad if he didn't cut my head off if I don't ask again."


	7. The Royal Blacksmiths

**Chapter 7: The Royal Blacksmiths**

They walked for as long the path lead them. The sun was slowly dipping in the horizon, a quarter way. Long shadows stretched from the towering trees as they walked, still no sign of a town anywhere. They weren't sure where they were walking to at this point. Jay felt nervous if the sun was gone before they reached safer grounds before the Dark Creatures came. But from his point of view, he saw that Kai and Lloyd looked confident as they moved on. He had to wonder how they weren't afraid of the darkness in the game, not like they encounter any Dark Creatures before.

The three finally stopped as they came to a crossroad path in the road to look at the different directions. They pondered which one to take, even Lloyd had his map open to browse through the nearest town in their location. Sadly, only his map showed him a two mile radius like everyone else's maps. They were sitting ducks now. They needed to make haste if they wanted to be in safer territory before the Dark Creatures came.

"So where do we go from here?" Jay wondered as he looked at all three pathways. "Ignacia Village is way far from where we are and our maps won't show us the safest pathway to the next town. I think we're hooped. And the Dark Creatures will eat us whole."

Lloyd had to sigh to the auburn. They were lost now and they weren't sure which path was the correct path. He had to agree with him. The Dark Creature still had hours before they spawned; plenty of time for them still. "Take it easy, Jay." he said. "We still got time before they can spawn. Now let's think, if Ignacia Village is that way, what does of our knowledge in IRL tell us where the next town is?"

"Difficult than you think, Kid." Kai replied to draw his sword out and began to draw in the soft ground. Both Jay and Lloyd studied him as he drew. They watched as he drew a map. "Unlike in IRL, we had phones that displayed the maps with a satillite image with all the roads and walkways of our locations. However, in Ninjago Online, everything is guessing at this point. We could be guessing where our path is, already missed our nearest town, or have to keep going." He pointed to their starting location. "Ignacia Village is here. And we've walked most of the day down this single path and now reached a crossroad. Basically it's a game of chance of where to go." The ground below him shifted to turn back to normal ground than drawn on.

He had to agree with the samurai. Unlike the game, he and maybe every player had a smartphone that displayed a map and his location. In Ninjago Online, everything is the opposite. Their maps only showed their location and a portion of the map. They were lost. But to him, unlike Jay, they weren't as he called it hooped. The nearest town could be near then by another five miles than they think. They still had time before the Dark Creatures came still.

His ears perked to the sound of thunder to have all three turn to the left the noise. In the distance, they watched as a group of players in shiny metal armor march down the path to remain in their spot as they reach the crossroads. The leader of the group had a scythe attached to his back walked up to the three and opened his menu to remove the metal helmet to reveal his shaggy raven hair. "Stand aside, you three." he demanded. "We're on the conquest to reach the nearest town and to defeat the Overlord Virus."

Kai had to give the knight a glare. Telling them orders was something he wasn't a fan of. "Funny," he began. "We're doing the same thing. But who do you think you are to give us orders like that?"

The raven haired teen had to snort at the spiky haired burnet. Cleary they have gotten off on the wrong foot together already. "We are the Royal Blacksmiths," he replied. "Defenders of lost players and on the conquest to defeat the Overlord. My guild is the strongest there is around these area, vandals are afraid of our presence. The name is Cole, by the way."

"The Royal Blacksmiths?" Jay wondered to begin laughing. "Isn't that the old singing quartet in Ninjago City?" He began to laugh louder to have Lloyd laughing with him. And Kai began to snicker a bit.

The knight's glare bore into them to turn to his guild as they began to snicker to turn to them. They quickly stopped to the glare from his amber eyes. But Kai, Jay, and Lloyd were in stitches. "That doesn't matter, right now." he stated. "What matters is the direct path to the nearest town before we encounter any of the Dark Creatures. But my guild and I are powerful to stand against them."

His laughter soon subsided to catch his breath and glanced at Cole's guild. Only six members to the guild, it made him wonder. How were they strong as he claimed? "Well as I said, it's funny right now." he replied. "Because we're in the same predicament as you are. Back behind us is Ignacia Village which is hours away, you'll never make there before nightfall. And from the path you guys took, we only have a fifty-fifty chance left. So what's your deathwish?"

Snorting, Cole grabbed the samurai by his chest armor to glare into his chocolate brown eyes. Kai returned the favor. "We don't have time for jokes or anything." he exclaimed. "Nightfall is approaching and we'll be in danger if you don't shape up. Now I think you where to go, so tell us which path to take." Kai remained quiet as Jay and Lloyd reached for their weapons. The other knights began to reach for their weapons as well.

"Boss, it's not worth it." one of the guild members said. "I doubt any of these noobs know anything if they're together. They're not even in a guild themselves. They'll most likely die before us before nightfall reaches us if we keep moving."

Cole had to glance at his teammates to nod. It was wasting time before the Dark Creatures come out. He released his hold on Kai to slowly to have Jay and Lloyd slowly relax. "Fine," he said. "We'll leave them be. Move out, continue north." He heard them salute and opened his menu to don his helmet back over his head and lead the way; leaving the three in the crossroads.

The samurai's glare kept hold onto the group of knights as they slowly became dots in their field of view. He had to snort at them. "Good riddance then," he mumbled and began to move west, away from the group of knights. "Let's keep moving."

Lloyd glanced at the Royal Blacksmiths as they were now in the distance. He felt a bit worried to catch up to the two. What if they were heading the wrong way? "Maybe we should've asked them if we could've traveled with them." he said. "A group like them could've known the right way. We possibly could've took the wrong path."

"Look, Kid," Kai exclaimed to turn to him. "They were being annoying and I don't think they would've wanted us by them. So we're on our own and they are as well. If they took the wrong path, that's fine by me. They claim they're strong and all, so I'm sure they'll be fine with the Dark Creatures."

"Sorry, Lloyd, I have to agree with him." Jay added.

A sigh came from the blonde hair teen to follow behind the two. When convincing Kai to have him and Jay tag along with him was a guilt trip to ensure no two single players are caught outside to the Dark Creatures. But now he realized the samurai isn't fazed to a guild. Does he just hate guilds in general? He had to wonder about him.

A loud scream broke his train of thought to have all three stop to the noise. It sounded like it was coming from the north. And up north was the Royal Blacksmiths. It sounded like they were in trouble. "Cole and his guild sound like they're in trouble!" Lloyd exclaimed. "We should help them before they're killed!"

Kai had to give him a hard stare and turned back to snort. "Why bother?" he asked. "It's their fault for taking the bad path. Plus you heard how he bragged about his guild being the strongest. They can handle it. Let's keep moving before nightfall gets here."

"But listen, Kai, that didn't sound like a scream of victory." Jay said. "It sounded like a cry of help and pain. We need to help them."

"We're not going to help them. They can perish for all I care. Let's go." He continued to walk down the path with both Lloyd and Jay still standing there.

Lloyd glanced at Jay to see him nod and drew out his spear. He nodded and drew out his sword. "We're going to help them, Kai." he stated, final. "Whether you like it or not." He and Jay began to run, cutting through the foliage to reach Cole and his guild. They ignored Kai's call to come back.

* * *

Back at the samurai, he watched the two disappear from his view to roll his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose. He tried to call them back but was only ignored. He huffed and continued down the path. "Idiots." he grumbled. "I hope you enjoy being food for the Dark Creatures."

* * *

They listened carefully as they ran through the forest, listening for any more screams or sounds of fighting happening. Lloyd quickly ran and climbed up a tree and scanned around for shiny metal armor glinting in the setting sun. Jay climbed up with him to join the search as the screams were silent for a moment. They finally spot a glint near them to quickly jump down and rush to the area. They broke through a shrubberry bush to gasp to what they saw.


	8. Saving

**Chapter 8: Saving**

In front of them were a cornered guild surrounded by a swarm of creatures. They were red and white scaled creatures with black markings. Narrow yellow eyes with fangs protruding from their mouths. Lloyd and Jay stood rigid as they resembled snakes that could walk on hind legs. A name appeared above their HP bar; _Serpentine- Fangpyre_.

The Fangpyres hissed at the cornered guild they tried to advance to them. But Cole swung his scythe to keep them back. Lloyd had to do a quick count of the guild members. There were six members, including Cole, but now there was five. One player was already dead. The raven haired teen glanced past the snakes to glare at the two. "I thought we told you to move on," he exclaimed. "We can handle this ourselves."

"Clearly from the scream earlier, you need our help." Lloyd retorted. He grabbed a stone from the ground and tossed it in his hand. "We need to thin the swarm, that way they can have more room to fight."

"How?" Jay asked. "There's a swarm right there. I never fought any of these."

"Just follow my lead." Lloyd smirked and held the rock back. A bright white aura surrounded the stone as he aimed and threw it. Like an arrow, a beam of light flew to the swarm of Serpentine and ricochet off a few of the snake's heads to have them turn to the two and hissed as a smudge of their health depleted. "Perfect." He and Jay properly stood their ground as they charged.

Lloyd charged with his sword held back to have the blade glowing a green aura. He spun while slashing his sword to a snake's chest to have it shatter as its HP bar was gone. He then ducked as another snake lashed its long claws to thrust his sword behind him to hear the creature cry out and then jumped back to watch the snakes move away from the cornered guild. They had the extra room now to attack.

Battle cries filled the forest as the Royal Blacksmiths began to retaliate against the Serpentine. Lloyd attacked another snake and watched Cole attacked as well with his scythe. He was surprised how quick and agile he was with the weapon to use both the blade and shaft of the weapon to fend off the snake. He was even more surprised how fast he was able to move in the heavy armor than most times armor would slow a player down. The crescent blade of the scythe glowed a black aura as Cole charged his energy into his weapon and swung into a horde of the snakes in front of him. Their health points drained quickly at the slice of the blade to shatter into pieces. The knight quickly turned on his heels to rotate the scythe around his body to parry a Fanpyre's claws with the shaft of his weapon and then slice at its chest to have it stagger back. He shouted to charge at more of the enemies.

Cole stopped in his tracks as he felt something strike into his back to turn around to come face with a larger foe of the swarm. A large snake that actually moved as an actual without the need of legs as it balanced itself on the trunk of its tail. It bore the same markings as the others Fangpyres, but it had two long necks on the same torso. A name appeared on top of its health bar; _Fangpyre General: Fangtom_. The knight stood rigid to the large snake as it swung a large sword around to threaten him, but he stood his ground. Both heads hissed at him and slithered to him and Cole charged to leap into the air with his scythe over him and charged the blade as he slammed into the general.

Lloyd quickly swung a kick to a soldier of the swarm to dodge the claws being swung him. He watched the swarm's numbers were slowly depleting to signify to coming victory as none of the other guild members were killed. A cry broke his train of thought to watch as Cole decapitated one of the general's heads and saw he was being pushed back as it went into a frenzy state. The teen wanted to rush to his side to distract it for him, but another snake charged at him to fight against it. He swung at its legs to have it fall and thrust his blade into its chest. He was breathing heavily and turned back to Cole to watch as the knight finished off the general to sigh in relief. He turned to see where Jay was as he lost him and found him surrounded by three snakes to start charging for him, but he stopped at he saw him smirking.

The entire spear glowed a bright blue aura and soon a flash of light filled around the three snakes from Jay. The light died down and Jay was no longer surrounded by the snakes, he was kneeling on the ground with his spear held behind his back. The three snakes were still and soon shattered as their HP bars depleted at the same time. Lloyd had to marvel at the auburn's speed, an ability he must've leveled up a lot. His train of thought was broke as a cry of pain filled the area to turn to witness what he saw.

A guild member of Cole's flew back with his HP bar turning red to disappear and shattered before he made contact to the ground. Soon another fell as well after a Fangpyre lashed his claws at his throat. Cole had shouted out of anger as he lost half of his guild and charged at the snakes out of anger. His scythe glowed a bright purple aura and swung it at a horde of snakes to have them shatter to the powerful attack. He swung again to have some snakes fly back. But due to his anger, he failed to a smaller sized snake sneak up to him and clawed at the weak spot of his armor to hear him gasp as he collapsed. He watched his HP bar was only a quarter of life to feel afraid as a group of Fangpyres loomed over him. He watched as the remaining of his guild were killed off with only Lloyd and Jay fighting the snakes.

He was alone now.

The snakes hissed, but they soon were shattered to see a hand reach out for him. He stared face to face with the samurai he crossed earlier to glare at his glare but nodded and grabbed his hand to pull himself up. Kai wrapped his arm around his neck and quickly lead him to the rock wall and set him down and turned back. He charged at a snake with his sword by his side and slashed at its abdomen to spin on his heels and attacked its unprotected chest to have it shattered to the quick blows. He turned to another snake to dodge its claws and used the hilt of his weapon to stun his foe and thrust the katana blade into its chest to have shatter. The last snake was killed off by Lloyd, all was quiet now to have the four sigh.

A screen appeared in front of all four teens, rewarding them for their small victory. Even Jay felt happy to leveling up. But Cole grimaced to the rewards and experience points he was given to close his screen and glanced around the forest to growl and slam his fist into the ground. He was the only Royal Blacksmith left. "My entire guild, gone." he hissed to lift his glare at the three that came to his aide. "My entire team is killed off and it's all because of you!"

Lloyd closed his menu after reviewing his rewards to feel pity for Cole's loss. He was the remaining Royal Blacksmith now. But he had resent the statement as he blamed him and Jay. They came to their time of need as they were surrounded after all. "We didn't do anything, Cole." he said while sheathing his sword. "We came to your rescue and helped you get rid of those snakes."

"Well I didn't need it." Cole retorted.

"Really," Jay began. "Because you were pinned against the wall, already lost one guy, you would've been all dead if we didn't intervene."

"And look what happen still. I am the remaining member to my guild and it's because you had to intervene." He opened his menu to tap on the screen to have a red vial appear in his hand. He removed the cork to drink it, his HP bar slowly reviving. The knight turned Kai as the samurai knelt next to the river. "You should've left me to die so I can be with my guild."

Kai had to give the knight a quick glare and turned back to the river to cup his hands and drink from them. He checked the quality of his blade before sheathing it to turn his glare at the knight. "Well I couldn't let others players die to become part of the Overlord's army." he stated. "So I did all I could. You owe me for saving your butt."

"Excuse me!" Cole snapped to jump to his feet. They stood face to face to glare at each other.

The blonde haired teen had to sigh as it wasn't time for bickering even after this swarm attack. "Enough!" Lloyd shouted to stand between the two. Cole snorted and walked away. He turned to the burnet. "And what are you doing here, Kai?" he asked. "I thought you were heading into next town and leaving them to the Fangpyre."

The samurai glanced at the teen to shrug and walked around to stretch himself while keeping an eye on Cole. He may have saved him, but it didn't mean he would attack him still for letting his guild get killed off. "Well I was going to," he replied. "But. . .I couldn't let you fall victim to the Dark Creatures. So yeah. . .I quickly rushed here as quick as I could and help get rid of these snakes."

A snicker broke the absolute silence in the forest, minus the birds chirping around them. All turned to Jay as his cheeks blushed a bit to snicker a bit more to what he heard. All three raised brows to him. What was funny to him then? "Ha! Guilt trip again!" Jay laughed harder. But he quickly stopped laughing as he watched Kai's eye twitch in anger and slowly reached for his katana. But Lloyd reached at his arm to stop him to sigh. He turned to the setting sun to gulp a bit. "Uh. . .guys, I think we're not out of the woods yet though." The three turned to him as he pointed to the disappearing sun. "Look."

The last golden rays of the sun finally disappeared in the horizon. The forest soon became enclosed with darkness silent. The birds were quiet and gone quickly. The sky was pitch black with the stars glistening with a full moon shining bright. Each felt a bit frozen, their virtual hearts racing a bit. They knew the time of day now. And they were caught in a bad part of the game without behind the walls of a town.

Nightfall has come. The Dark Creatures were now unleashed.


	9. The Dark Creatures

**Chapter 9: The Dark Creatures**

Darkness surrounded them as the sun was gone. The full moon was lighting the forest for four players. Silence was all they heard, except for the crickets chirping along the river with the soft flow of the water. A peaceful quiet night, only outside of the game. In the game, it was much different when being out after dark.

Their virtual hearts were racing to the darkness and kept turning their heads. They kept hearing a branch snapping to their head to the direction to see nothing. Their weapons were drawn out as they stood back to back. Being out during nightfall was known as bad luck for the creatures known as the Dark Creatures spawn during the night and hunt any unsuspecting players. No one lived to tell the tale of who dared to hunt these beast for glory.

Another branch snapped caught Kai's attention to have his chocolate brown eyes lit up to activate his Hunter Senses. The sound of the river and insects were silent as he used his ears to listen carefully, his eyes brighten his vision to see any movement of the foliage. But he heard nothing or saw anything move. His breathing was becoming rather quick as he deactivated his senses. "Does anybody know anything about the Dark Creatures?" he wondered.

They glanced at him to shrug and kept their eyes trained onto the foliage in front of them. They all didn't want to be caught off guard. "I've heard from someone said that the Dark Creatures are all the same beasts." Jay said. "Like there's only one kind of creature."

The knight snorted to grip his scythe tightly. "Funny," Cole said. "I heard there was multiple kinds of beasts to kill players with one swipe. Depends what kind you face in Ninjago." Jay gulped to the thought. The auburn didn't like the sound of it. Neither of them did.

Lloyd had to try and calm his breathing, but the thoughts were burning in his head. He has heard stories of players trying to fight the Dark Creatures, but to only lose their lives. And now it was him, and three other players out after dark. He only hoped they could survive the night now. Time was now slow as they heard nothing and slowly began to advance down the path. Their weapons were still drawn out as they kept their guard up. But his ears perked to the sound of a snarl. "On our left!" he shouted.

A large beast broke through the treeline and charged to the four teens. It stood taller than the four, a wolf-like creature that ran on its hind legs with large, sharp claws; it was named as Dire Wolf. It leaped to the four. They jumped out of the beast's way to be separated from their tight circle and soon three more Dire Wolves broke out of the treeline to run to the group. "Ambush!" Kai shouted and swiped at one of the wolves to push them back.

"Run!" Jay shouted to have the other three nod and ran separate directions. His breathing was quick and shallow as he ran with a Dire Wolf running right after him. Jay panicked as it ran faster on its hind legs than most regular wolves. His head snapped to the right as he heard someone running adjacent to him and nearly collided with Lloyd and grabbed him by his sleeve to keep running. Both Dire Wolves were after them. "What do we do!? What do we do!?" he shouted, laboring his breathing. "I don't want to die young here!"

"I don't know!" Lloyd replied, frantic. "I'd never fought anything like this. They're high level as well than most beasts here." Both heard something screeching to snap their heads back to see something in the sky and watched large bat-like creatures fly in a swarm and flew to the two. "You've got to be kidding me."

Both had to duck their heads as the bats tried to grab them with their talons while trying to avoid the wolves. But Lloyd felt a pair of talons pierce through his shoulders to scream in pain and was wretched off the ground. "Lloyd!" Jay shouted and ducked underneath a tree with thick roots acting as a barrier. "We're so hooped! Hooped I tell you!"

* * *

Kai glanced over a fallen tree to duck under as a Dire Wolf searched around him. He dared not move or breathe loudly as he didn't want to reveal his spot. His mind was filled with the other players that were with him before they ran. But he pushed the horrible thoughts out for he had to focus about his own survival for now. He was sure the others were hiding or. . .worse. _Focus, Kai,_ he told himself. _You have to focus if you don't want to be wolf food._

He carefully peeked over the log to watch the Dire Wolf sniff around for his scent and stopped. The burnet held his breath and watched the beast move away from him to sigh quietly. Too close. But the ground around him suddenly began to shake to make him jump to his feet as he watched blouders of earth form together and created a large beast to roar loudly; a Cragling. Kai felt frozen to move as it glared at him and swung its massive arm at him.

The samurai flew back and his back made contact to a tree to slump to the ground. Half of his HP bar was gone to have him cough as it was a critical hit, does more damage than normal attacks. He tiredly tried to pull himself up, but the Cragling towered over him and raised both rocky arms over him. The thoughts of his sister flashed in his head as he raised his arms to defend himself. He knew it was over and he wouldn't get to be with her again.

The creature yowled in pain as something struck through its chest to gaze down. Kai opened his eyes to see a black, crescent shaped blade through its chest and shattered as its HP bar was gone. He was stunned as he was face to face with Cole's glare and wondered he was going to kill him for not letting him die with his guild. But instead the knight held his hand out to him and he nodded to slowly take it. "We're even now." Cole said to flash a smirk. Kai nodded and both turned as they heard Jay screaming to rush to his aid.

* * *

"Back! Back! Back!" the auburn shouted as he thrust his spear at the Dire Wolves. The two wolves clawed at the thick roots acting as his shield while sometimes reaching into the hollow. The small gap he dove into was growing larger to scream and moved away as they tried to grab him. His spear glowed a soft red aura and thrust it at a beast's neck to hear it howl in pain. It snarled as Jay aggravated it to move to a different end of the tangled roots and reached in and grabbed a hold of Jay's leg to have him scream and was pulled out.

His hazel eyes were wide as he stared into the long snout of the Dire Wolf as he dangled by his leg. He hazardly swung his spear around to try and fend them off, but the wolves weren't fazed. They simply swiped the spear from his grip and made their claws longer to have him whimper as he watched them lick their muzzles. He had to scream the loudest for help.

He heard the sound of a weapon being charged and saw a quick blue light swipe at the wolf's arm to hear it howl in pain as its arm was cut clean off. The auburn fell to the ground as the creature was in a frenzy state to its missing arm watched another quick red light attack the other beast to be thrown back. Jay turned to see Cole and Kai pull him to his feet and grabbed his spear from the ground. The two Dire Wolves howled to the two players and ran away, regrouping.

A shaky sigh came from the auburn to sheath his spear and felt his stomach doing sommersaults. But he wondered if his real stomach was feeling the same and probably threw up bile than in the game he could. He controlled his breathing and glanced around in the silence. "Thanks for the help," he said. "I'm glad to not be wolf food."

A smile came from the knight and samurai to agree with him. But Kai's smile vanished as there was one person missing. "Where's Lloyd!?" he asked.

He wished he knew. But the blonde teen was wretched away from his sight and had his wolf on his trail. "We got attacked by these freaky bat creatures and one actually swooped down like a hawk and took him away." he explained. "By now he's probably miles away from us and he's going to die if we don't find him." They nodded and began to run the direction where Jay last saw Lloyd.

* * *

His shoulders were on fire to groan to the pain. Not too mention he was being carried away by a large bat with its talons peircing his shoulders. A quarter of his HP bar was gone with an icon appearing next to the bar; a drop of blood, bleeding. His HP bar was slowly losing life. He wanted to heal himself but it hurt his arms to move as this creature took him away.

Biting his lip, he drew out his sword to whimper to the blossoming fire in his shoulders and swiped at the creature's abdomen. The bat hissed and released its grip on the teen and flew away as he fell. The wind howled passed his ears as he fell and saw the ground growing larger. He felt fatigue to do anything and fell into a large river.

The water instantly woke him up to quickly swim up to the surface and gasp for air and tried to swim. But he was still fatigue to move as he was sore to move and struggled against the strong current. He heard something jump into the water and felt something grab his waist to see it was Jay who jumped in and saw Cole and Kai at the ledge to be pulled out by both of them. He threw a coughing fit to lift his green eyes to the two. "Thanks for the help." he coughed.

"No sweat, Squirt." the knight replied. "Couldn't let you die as well." He saw him smile and quickly turned on his heels to the sound of howling.

All four felt tense as they watch the four Dire Wolves had regrouped and cornered the four teens. Lloyd watched as Cole, Kai, and Jay stood guard of him and quickly opened his menu to pull out a health vial to quickly drink it to revive his health bar, but the bleeding effect was still active for some time. But with the four of them having substained damaged from the Dark Creatures, they didn't stand much of a chance. He hoped for a miracle. They all did.

The Dire Wolves snarled and charged to the four as they braced themselves.

A bright light soon filled the forest area to have the wolves stop in their tracks and shield their eyes to the intensity while the others followed suit to the light. They felt a warm aura come from the light to have the wolves flee to the light. It slowly died down to have the four move their arms away to see someone approaching them. Another player lost in the forest. A white cloak surrounded him with a hood hiding his face as he approached the four and removed his hood. They saw a pale skinned face with deep blue eyes with platinum blonde hair to feel their hearts skip a beat to the rescue.

"Are you an angel?" Jay asked out of curiousity.

The player had his head tilted to look at the auburn weirdly. "Uh. . .I'm not sure what you mean by that?" he said and turned to the sounds of the Dark Creatures. He turned back to the four. "We need to make haste. Quick, follow me, I know a safe zone nearby." The four glanced at each other about the new player. They had an odd feeling of him, but nodded reluctantly. They had to wonder, where did he come from in the nick of time? It didn't matter as they found safety. "This way, down the river." he said and the four followed after him.


	10. Sending Help

**Chapter 10: Sending Help**

 **One Week Ago. . .**

Tiredness clouded his eyes as he stared at the computer monitor for hours. His fingers popped and ached as he typed on the keyboard, trying to resolve the issue. An issue he's been fighting and dealing with for months. Where thousands of players were trapped inside a video game from a virus. Now everything depended on Cyrus Borg and his partner, Neuro to try and release the trapped players. The question was one thing, how?

A sigh came from the man to push his keyboard and wheeled himself from his desk to turn to the large viewing window of his office. The sun was slowly descending in the city skyline, reflecting off the building windows as mirrors. It made him wince to the glares from the glass to press his hand on his window to have a control board appear in the window pane. He touched on the console to have the touch screen disappear and his windows tinted to reduce the sunlight in his office and returned to enjoy the peace and quiet. But Cyrus knew he couldn't relax with the trapped players in his mind and the media hovering over his head.

His head snapped to the sound of the elevator doors opening to turn and watched as his assistant, P.I.X.A.L, stepped out. He could see the look of exhaustion on her face to agree with her and pulled himself away from the window to wheel himself back to his desk. Who could blame her for the look? Even she has been working hard to almost exhaust her power source to ensure the game doesn't affect the players. Borg Industries has been taking a toll for the trapped players and media on them.

"Mr. Borg," the android began to meet at his desk. "I've finished checking today's server schematics and so far there's been no bugs or anything to affect the players." She handed her supervisor a glass tablet that displayed a holographic image of the reports. The man quickly skimmed it to sigh and gently tossed it aside. "But I take it something else is bothering you. Another painful interview with Channel Six News?"

"Oh you don't know half of it, P.I.X.A.L," the man said. "Had to deal with the critics of the angered people that have trapped loved ones and friends in the game as usual and had to deal with hard hitting questions. Wondering when the virus will be dealt with and the trapped players freed. It's been six months and there's been no progress." He removed his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. "Where's Neuro? I need to talk with him."

"He's on his way to see you. He had to stop into his office to deal with a phone call." The android grabbed her tablet to rest it into the holster on her hip and proceeded to clean the clutter on his desk. After she finished, she noticed he looked silent and distant to feel worried for him. "Sir, is something bothering you?"

Cyrus turned to the android he created to shake his head. He may look distressed, but he didn't want to worry her more. "It's nothing, P.I.X.A.L" he replied. He heard the elevator doors open again and watched as Neuro enter into his office. "Ah Neuro, there you are."

"I came as soon as I could. Had to deal with an annoying phone call." the man replied. He then sighed to take a seat across from him. "I know what you called for me and I'm still trying. But trying to get a player out without the virus knowing is hard work. I have to bypass the NeuroGear's motherboard and carefully creep into the player's brainwaves to carefully reactivate them. But due the virus, it knows what I'm doing to block me and destroy my system. I've even tried a back door, but he's onto us. There's nothing I can do at the moment."

Another sigh came from the man to ponder. But he couldn't think of anything to resolve the troubling issue. "It's been six months, Cyrus." he continued. "There's nothing we can do right now. We're just in deep water until something happens."

Cyrus had to agree with his partner. So much for hacking into the NeuroGear to try and reactivate a person to leave the game peacefully. That idea was tossed out now. "I agree, Neuro." he said. "We've tried everything and nothing helped. Sending in people to try and beat the virus but he wouldn't let them into the game. Trying to download the antivirus to delete the virus but he counters against it before we can get it into the game. And now this." He leaned back into his wheelchair to stare at the ceiling. "We need a miracle now."

Indeed they did. With the media pestering them all day and night, both Cyrus and Neuro couldn't be left alone and have been working nonstop to try and save the trapped players. They weren't sure if the Overlord wanted something to exchange for their freedom or wanted them to have a second life in the game. Either way, it was troubling for the company. Even with everyone demanding to get their loved ones out of the game. They've tried everything.

Neuro turned his head to the setting sun to sigh a bit and looked away to ponder with his partner. But his light blue eyes brought his attention to the finished NeuroGear he built for Cyrus in a display case to feel an idea bloom in his head. Was it even possible? If they couldn't send in people, could they send in someone else? It was one possible way. "You know, if we couldn't send in real people," he began to walk over to the case to remove the dome covering. "We could send him in."

Puzzled, he and P.I.X.A.L turned their attention to understand where he was going with this. But it dawned onto Cyrus. Neuro was right. But something worried him. "You think sending him into the game will help the players?" he pried. "He's been out of commission for years, not seen since his father passed away. I'm a bit worried for one thing." He turned to his assistant to see she looked worried. "Something troubling you, P.I.X.A.L?"

"N-No sir," she replied, rubbing her arm nervously. "It's just that. . .I've actually talked to him before and I'm worried about him too. I understand that Julien used to be your old partner, but I'm worried about him in the game and. . .become trapped as well."

They had to agree with her, but they had no other choice. This was their only chance they had left and it's something they had to go with. "I understand then," Cyrus said to relieve her. "But with the troubling times we're facing, I know Zane can do it." He wheeled himself to the case to grab the NeuroGear and made his way to the large computer monitor of his to take a deep breath. "I would like both of you to step out and give me some time. I need some peace to work on this."

Neuro nodded to this to bow his head. But the android stood there nervously but had to follow his command. "As you wish, Cyrus." he said to head for the elevator. "Come along, P.I.X.A.L. If you need me, I'll be doing some errands. Give me a call if you need anything." Both of them entered the elevator and left to let the man begin his work. Cyrus took another breath and plugged the NeuroGear into the monitor to begin typing.

* * *

The lights were bright in the white sterile room of the hospital. Silence was all around except for the occasional beep of a heart rate monitor going off when tracking a patient's heart beat. A teen laid down a sterile sheets of the gel layer bed with a blanket over him. Only he wasn't sleeping, more of consciousness as he had a headpiece on his head and over his face. A NeuroGear, a device where the user can immerse themselves into a virutal world where thousands of players are trapped. This player was one of them.

Two teens sat in the room with the trapped patient, glancing at the teen back and forth and return to watching the television in the room. Both knew they were wasting their time waiting for Lloyd to wake up from the game. But they had hope he would exit out soon and be the first people to see when woken up to. Their parents were still busy with running a company, but they still visited their son and nephew. That's what Lucas Wu and Laurie Garmadon kept doing, visiting Lloyd.

The burent sighed quietly as he studied his cousin lying in the bed to study him. Catheter tubes injected food into his body and remove any waste with IV tubes giving him the essential vitamins and water to his body. The heart rate monitor kept check of his heart and a special computer in his room monitored his brainwaves as he played in the virtual world. And the NeuroGear made Lucas think of a alien movie he watched when the parasite attached itself to its victim's face. Seeing his cousin in this, worried the teen. He wondered if it worried Laurie as well.

A loud knock on the door startled both teens from their train of thought to have Laurie answer it. Both were surprised to see Neuro on the other side to see his sheepish smile and wondered what he was doing to visit Lloyd's room. "Hi. . .hope I'm not disturbing you guys and Lloyd here." he said, quietly. "But I figured I come and visit you guys since I figured you'd be here."

"Um. . .no you're fine," Laurie replied to let the man enter in. "We're just sitting here and enjoying each other's company really." She glanced at her brother's limp form in the bed to sigh. Six months and this was still antagonizing to her and her family.

"I see." Neuro said to shrug and walked over to the bed. All of his work with the NeuroGear, now being used as a prison to these people. This was humiliating to his creation. For now, he pushed the thought away. "Anyway, I came by to check on you two since you've been pestering me a lot and thought I'd return a favor."

A small chuckle escaped from Lucas as it was true. Since day one of the accident, he and his cousin have been with Neuro to try and help him free the players. But all weren't successful. Payback had to happen. "It's fine." he said. "Just hope he can leave the game soon. Knowing him, he's a good gamer. But still, my family and I want to see his face beneath that mask." Neuro glanced at the two to nod as he wished the same and not see the NeuroGear hide their face. He hoped that Cyrus finished his work that could finally eradicate the virus for good.

* * *

Fingers typed quickly in rhythmic work on the keyboard. Eyes were narrow as he focused his attention on the large monitor in front of him. Time was on the assents now. Cyrus needed everything to go his way now and not the virus'. This was his final push to take siege in his game. His late partner's creation was the final push to break into the game and help the trapped players.

Different schematics and files filled on the screen to have him continue his work and turned to the NeuroGear next to him. Everything was ready now and he took a deep breath to turn back to the screen. It was all ready now, the antivirus protocol and artifical being ready to launch. He didn't know what the consequences would be, but this was their chance they had left. He typed on the keyboard again to initate the download into the NeuroGear.

A loading bar appeared onto the screen and Cyrus watched hesitently as everything was slowly being downloaded. It was all onto someone else's shoulders, but he had hope to his partner's creation. The loading screen paused for a moment to make the man sit on the edge of his wheelchair, worried. A minute passed and the download finally loaded into the NeuroGear to make him sigh in relief as it worked. "Your father created you to protect those that can't protect themselves." he said, quietly. "It's time for you to do what you were created to do, Zane. Please, you're the only hope we got left to save everyone."


	11. Sanctuary

**Chapter 11: Sanctuary**

Their paces were rushed as they followed a new player through the large woods. The sounds of the Dark Creatures were making them nervous to run harder to the supposed safe zone the player had said. They weren't sure at first if he was leading them to a trap, but he had saved them though. They had to wonder still.

Lloyd kept his eyes trained onto the player as he lead them through the foliage. His white cloak wisping to the wind and sometimes snagging onto a branch or two. He glanced ahead of them to see the end of the forest and a rocky wall to raise a brow. The player lead the four to the rocky wall and laid his hand against it. A door outline formed on the wall and moved aside to reveal a white safe room. The four felt ecstatic to the sanctuary and moved through the filmy door to enter. They sighed in relief.

Cole collapsed onto the marble bench and watched a Dire Wolf run past the safe room and turned to the unknown player. "Thanks for saving us," he said and opened his inventory and a red vial appeared in his hand. "But who are you?" He started drinking the vial to revive his health slowly.

The player looked at the four to open his menu to remove his cloak. They saw he was dressed in a simple white tunic and pants with leather armor on his chest. The starting armor of every player. Lloyd hasn't seen that attire since the launch of the game. "I'm. . .not sure." he replied. "I can't to seem to remember much of myself or anything."

The four looked at each other puzzled. This player couldn't remember anything or even being trapped inside the game. He had to know he was trapped in a game, right? "Okay. . .but do you remember your name at least?" Jay pried.

The blonde teen turned to the four and look at his hands to ponder. All he remember was seeing darkness and woke up to find himself in the forest, but he felt he had a purpose in his head and can't figure out why. "I. . .think my name is Zane." he replied, remembering the only name he heard someone say to him. "At least I think it is. . .I'm not sure."

A smile came from Lloyd to rest his hand on his shoulder. Zane looked at him oddly. "If it's your name, then we'll call you that then, Zane." he said to make a small smile come from him. "So how come you said you don't remember anything? You do know you're trapped in an VRMMORPG game, right?"

He nodded, but only shrugged. Everything was vague to him. But yet, he already understand the concepts of the game, his abilities, but doesn't have any weapons or better armor. "I'm not sure what happened, I believe I have amnesia though." he stated. "I remember being in darkness and woke up in the forest. But yet, I know most of the beasts here and stuff. . .I feel like I can't remember anything about myself outside the game. Like family or anything."

The four turned to each other to ponder. The poor player was lost and had no memory for outside the game. They had to pity him. "Is it possible to get amnesia in the game?" Kai wondered.

"I don't think so." Jay replied. "In this game, you can be poisoned, paralyzed, bleeding, and even had limbs chopped off. Amnesia though is different. I don't think it's possible."

"Maybe something happened to his NeuroGear when he was being treated to at a hospital like all of us." Cole suggested. "Like in the beginning when players glitched and were frozen, it was because they were cut off from connection to be transported and plugged back in. Maybe Zane had a glitch in his NeuroGear to cause memory loss. So maybe he'll remember something. But I think he should come with us to the next town when morning comes, we can't have him wander off without proper armor and weapons." The four nodded.

"Thank you." Zane said and opened his menu to tap on the screen. Soon a platter of food appeared in his hands and walked to the marble bench. "Now I'm sure you four are famished after your encounter with those creatures. So I'd be more than happy to share some of my provisions to you. I was doing some gathering in the forest when I found you four. So please, enjoy."

The four teens turned to the platter of sandwiches he placed on the bench to feel their mouths water to the scent. The NeuroGear was not only able to respond to movements from the brain and spinal cord and even feel temperature of the weather, but it was also able to respond to the player's senses of touch, hearing, smell, and taste. A living virtual person like in IRL. Although they couldn't eat real food, the virtual food only stopped the growling feel in their stomaches to trick their brain.

Jay carefully grabbed a sandwich to take a bite to stop and whimper in joy. He ravenously took more bites of the sandwich. "It actually tastes like real food from home!" he said through a mouthful. "Like it's a submarine sandwich and the mayonnaise tastes all too real." A tear of nostalgia fell down his cheek.

Intrigued, the other three grabbed a sandwich to take a bite as well and were frozen. Their eyes had widen to the taste of cooked meat and vegetables to turn to Zane. A puzzled gaze came from the teen as he studied each of their surprised glances as they quickly finished their meal rather quickly while savorying the flavors. "I believe you four happened to enjoy the meal?" he wondered to watch the platter shatter as it was empty.

A smile of bliss came from the four to feel their stomaches feeling full with the astounding taste remaining in their mouths. A dream coming true to them almost. "That was like the best meal I've had in months." Kai said, calmly to lie back against the flat bench. "Most food in this game is all different in restaurants, but this...was way better than anything."

"Like my stomach finally gotten a meal than just simple foods this game offers." Cole added. "Screw the sensory inputs the NeuroGear does to our brain, this felt real almost."

"Amen," Jay sighed to lie back on the floor to close his eyes.

Lloyd had to agree with them and turned to Zane as he opened his menu and another sandwich appeared in his hand to slowly eat it. He had to marvel his cooking skills, beyond better than any restaurant as Kai said. "So by the looks of the sandwiches, your cooking skill is S-leveled then?" he wondered. Zane nodded. S-leveled skills were known as the highest skills to unlock and create or use it in many ways. "But what is your skill with a weapon then?"

Zane had to pull away to think. But he shrugged. "I don't remember that either." he said and continued to eat. "Nothing in my weapons inventory tells me I have a weapon so I'm not sure how well I can fight in the game. Or survive. I just know my cooking skills are S-leveled with a bunch of other skills I have."

"Well looks like we got ourselves a case to take care of then." Lloyd said to have the others agree. He turned to the door of the safe room and watched the Dark Creatures patrol the area, waiting for them to come out. He glanced over his shoulder to watch Jay doze off and began to feel exhausted as well to turn from the door and retired for the night.

* * *

Sunlight broke his transcedence of sleep to pull himself to his feet and stretched. Lloyd watched as the others were slowly waking up as well with Zane mediatating by the entrance of the safe room. The platinum blonde teen peeked an eye to see them all awake to smile and pulled himself to his feet. "Good morning, everyone." he greeted them. "I hope we had a restful night."

"I guess so." Jay yawned and popped his back. "Sleeping on the floor is the only comfort I can get I guess after those wolves. At least they're gone now."

He nodded. "Yes," Zane agreed. "I happen to know where the next town is from here, we should head off now if we need to resupply now."

"What about breakfast?"

Cole and Kai had to give the auburn a glare. "Don't you see it, Jay?" the samurai said. "He's eager to get some weapons and armor like we said we'd help him for he helped us. We can worry about breakfast later." He watched him nod hurriedly. "Good." He checked the quality of his katana and stepped out of the safe room. Soon everyone followed after him.

The morning sun felt warm and bright to the five players of the woodland area to find themselves in a meadow. Wildflowers bloomed all around to feel content to the beauty of nature. A screen appeared in front of them, congratulating them for surviving the night and given them each a special reward. Zane studied his reward to sigh as it wasn't a weapon, but something unusual to shrug and tapped on his sceen to don on his cloak and lead the way. "This way." They followed him.

In the distance, Lloyd saw a mountain to smile as he recognized the town ahead in the mountains. Jamanakai Village, sanctuary for the five now. They all smiled to the village. All thanks to Zane saving them on time. Time to return a favor.


	12. Town Meeting

**Chapter 12: Town Meeting**

The morning sun grew along the mountain side as a group of five players climbed the winding stone stairs. Their feets ached as they walked the steep mountain to reach the next village high in the mountains. Jamanakai Village. They felt relieved as they reached the village's wall that was on the side of the mountain and entered to study the new scenery.

Lloyd turned to the others and watched them turn their heads around curiously to study the new village. He, however, already visited the mountain village a couple weeks ago. Cobblestone pavement lined the roads with simple houses and clay tiled roofs like Ignacia Village. There was even a fountain at the center of the small town with channels of water running down the paved trenches to the mountain side. The small town was filled with NPC's interacting in the game with a small handful of players roaming the narrow streets.

"So. . .where do we start to find me a weapon?" Zane asked out of curiousity.

The knight turned to the weaponless player to see his puzzling gaze as he craned his head to search out. "Well," he began. "To get you a weapon is to head to the market here in town. There we'll find you a blacksmith and even get ourselves some apothecary suppies since we used up most of them last night." He opened his menu and tapped on Zane's name to trade. "But how much gold do you have to shop for supplies? Being a starter player with amnesia, you're going to have to suit up to stay alive. We'll be happy to give you some currency to help you."

He had to wonder and opened his menu to move Cole's invite aside and glanced around for any money. He raised a brow and turned to the others. "I-uh-have two million gold?" he said, confused to see their jaws dropped. "Is that good or something?"

They couldn't believe what they heard. The new player they met had a lot of currency without realizing it. They didn't need to trade any of their money to him after all then. "Yeah that's good. . ." Jay said, dumbfolded. "But how do you have that much money? Unless you somehow hacked the game."

Shrugging, Zane wasn't sure. "I just don't know then." he replied. "Maybe my amnesia is worst than I thought. But since I have the money, shall we continue to help me find a weapon?" He watched the others looked at him confused, but nodded still and Lloyd lead the way through the streets to the market.

A couple minutes later, they found themselves in the market with players browsing around the shops. Lloyd lead Zane to a blacksmith while the others went their separate ways to resupply themselves. The cloaked teen looked at the NPC owner and tapped on the screen in front of him to open the shop and studied each weapons and stats from them. He kept a brow raised as he studied and carefully tested certain ones he wanted to try and didn't get the feel for them. He finally stopped as something caught his eye. "What are these?" he wondered, turning to Lloyd and heard the others meet up with them.

The blonde teen studied the picked item to raise a brow and turned to Zane. He had to joking with them. Two medium sized triangular pieces of metal with symmetric bladed ends. "Those are shurikens." he replied. "They're like throwing stars, but no one really uses them, people call them worthless to fight with. They're good for close combat."

Curious, they sounded interesting to him. He tapped on the screen to purchase the items and the pieces of metal landed in his hands with a holster attaching itself to his belt. He gripped the shurikens tightly and felt content with them as they felt perfect in his hands. Lloyd and the others looked at him oddly to the purchase of the weapons no other players used and watched him place the weapons in his holster. "Now all you need his armor." Kai added and lead him to a tailor next to the blacksmith shop. "Now think carefully of what armor you'd need. Most time, players will have full body armor like Cole here or light armor like Jay. So take your time with this."

Zane nodded and opened the shop menu to browse. A few minutes passed and the player made his purchase to be surrounded a white light. It died down to reveal him with his cloak on, but underneath was a different set of clothing. A white long sleeve tunic that folded over his chest with metal armor attached over his left side and metal rugged shoulder armor. His pants were black with leather boots that had metal greaves on his shins. He studied himself and his clothing to turn to the others as they had smiles on his face. "Does this suffice well?" he asked to see them nod. He smiled.

The town's bell caused the teens to jump a bit and turned to watch NPC's remain normal, but watched the other players move to the same direction to look at each other. They shrugged and followed suit. Curiousity got the best of them. The narrow streets were filled with players as they made their way through, some nudging players rudely. At the end of the street, it became wider as they were outside of the village to the mountain side as they came to a small auditorium with a small stone stage at the bottom of the stairs to watch players gather in and turned to a sign. "Town Meeting at 8:30 a.m, Today?" Lloyd read, puzzled.

"Maybe. . .they're having a meeting for a special event in the game." Jay said. "Like a tournament."

"Maybe it's something else." Cole said, certained. He took a step forward to the auditorium to only collide into another player. "Hey move will ya?"

The tall, stocky player glared at the knight and crossed his arms. Cole quickly studied the player to see him donned in black clothing with metal armor around specific parts of his body with a samurai helmet over his head. A black beard grew down to his neck and the knight noticed large metal gloves attached to his belt. "No one gets past Karloff without any weapons or armor." the player said, deeply. "Remove all armor and weapons and Karloff will let you through. This is a safe area after all, orders by my leader."

"What? I am not removing my armor or anything." Cole exclaimed and carefully reached for his scythe. But he felt a hand grab his arm to glance his shoulder and saw Zane shake his head to sigh. No need for a fight to break out for nothing. "Fine." he said and opened his menu to tap on his screen and his scythe and armor disappeared into his inventory. He was now dressed in black pants and tank top to reveal his thick arms and crossed them to pout.

"Whoa, dude, you're ripped." Jay said, surprised.

"Yeah whatever, now if you want in on the meeting, be like me."

Lloyd nodded since Karloff made his point to Cole and opened his menu to remove his sword and coat to be in a normal green shirt and pants to watch the others remove their armor. Two lights came from Kai and Jay to reveal the samurai in a red shirt and brown pants and the auburn in his blue shirt and pants. They turned to Zane as he stood hesitant. "He's fine." Karloff said. "I see no armor on him." They turned to Zane to nod since his cloak hid him.

"Thank you." the teen said and followed the others into the auditorium. They took a seat on the far right from the other group of players, trying to pry on what the meeting was about. It quickly became silent as someone walked on stage.

A large smile came from the male player dressed in brown clothing and coat with a golden medallion around his neck. Jay had to snicker a bit to his styled hair. "Alright everyone, alright." the player began. "I thank you all for coming to this meeting about defeating the Overlord Virus." Hushed tones came from the other players to have Lloyd and crew surprised about this. The player cleared his throat to address the crowd. "My name is Dareth, a skilled player with a sword and a martial arts expert outside the game. And I've gathered this meeting to tell you all that the game is possible to beat."

"How so?" a male player asked, puzzled. "We've been stuck here for months and already lost a lot of players to the game and are now his army. Those things are made of indestructible stone."

"Ah, yes, but there is a way to defeat the army and their armor." Dareth said. "Like most armor, there's a weak spot where we can defeat the enemy." The crowd had to glance at one another, interested. "I came across a scout one day in the Spirit Coves and nearly been killed off by him until I saw the weak spot." He pointed at his chest under his right underarm. "This is the spot where the armor is held up, if you remove the armor and stab them right there, the enemy is killed off. With that informed, it'll be easier to kill off the army and one step closer to defeat the virus. With all of us players as a team to defeat this game and escape once and for all."

Everyone was silent until players began to clap slowly and cheer to the needed information. They had a way to defeat the game. Lloyd turned to the players to feel a bit uneasy to the idea though. It relieved him to know of a way to get out of the game. But he and the others weren't applauding though. He quickly stood up and raced down the steps and jumped onto the stage. "Everyone wait!" he said to address the crowd to have them become silent.

"Get off the stage!" another player shouted. The crowd began to chew him out. Kai and the others stood ready to defend him. "We got a way to beat this game though."

"But listen though. Don't you remember what the Overlord said on what happens to fallen players? They become the army that we're going to defeat." Everyone became silent. "These were friends, relatives, and guild members." He turned to Cole to see him hang his head. "This is something the Overlord would've wanted from every player. To fight against their friends for amusement. There has to be another way to fight the virus without harming our friends."

A low chuckle broke through the silence and the blonde teen turned his head to the new player that walked on stage. He stood taller than Lloyd with black hair that reached his shoulders with a length of green streak of dye running down his left bangs with deep green eyes and wore dark green clothing. The player continued to chuckle a bit and stopped to study Lloyd. "You are funny, I'll give you that." he said to give Lloyd a glare. "But don't forget this is a game of survival and we'd do anything to survive, even if that means to fight our _friends._ "

Lloyd had to give the player a hard stare. "And you are?" he pried, standing his ground.

"Morro," the player replied. "I'm Morro Konzu and I know who you are, Lloyd Garmadon. The heir to Ninjago City Tower." Lloyd's eyes were wide to the player knowing him in IRL and felt frozen to move as Morro turned to the crowd. "Don't listen to this coward for he doesn't know what he's talking about. Outside the game, his family is nothing but liars and deceivers for they own Ninjago City Tower. They're the ones who ruined my grandfather." The crowd became still to have all eyes trained on Lloyd as he was frozen to move, still flabbergasted that someone knew him. "He was an honest man, my grandfather worked with his grandfather to create Ninjago City. In the end, he ruined him, kicked him out to early retirement. Swearing he'll take revenge to the company that ruined his life while the Garmadon's and Wu's grew famous for all of his work. He never got the chance."

All eyes were still trained on Lloyd to have the teen shake his nerves away. He tried to speak but the crowd started to shout at him to remain silent as he wanted to defend himself. He felt stones hit him as they threw them at him. Kai turned to the others to see them nod and all rushed down and stood in front of him to take the stones and they stopped. "Leave the kid alone!" the samurai shouted. "He's done nothing to deserve this. You're basically picking on him for nothing he's done to this loser. How he knows who he is is something we didn't know. But he's been helpful to us and we won't let you do this to him."

A chuckle came from Morro to shake his head. "Says the lone samurai, a knight, a thief, and now a lone player." he said. Cole and Kai had to turn to Jay as he gave a sheepish laugh. "What you're doing with him is beyond me, he'll get you killed off when you least at expect it." He turned to the crowd. "Meeting adjorned. Leave him be. Don't treat him properly. Karloff, let's go"

The crowd began to leave the auditorium, Morro disappearing into the crowd with his bodyguard following him. There was silence now to the five players and Lloyd sighed as he sat on the stone floor to rest his head on his knees. They felt bad for him to what happened a few minutes ago, how people could be cruel to another player after listening to someone who wanted revenge on his family. That wasn't right to do another player. "Come on now," Kai said to hold his hand to him. "Let's get some food in you. That should cheer you up." Lloyd softly smiled and took his hand and walked with his friends.


	13. Becoming A Team

**Hey everyone, sorry for the late update. I didn't know that the servers were down. But now that they're running again, we can get back on track with the story. Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Becoming a Team**

The shop bell chimed as Jay pushed the door open. The small restaurant was filled with players, enjoying their virtual meal and interacting with one another. But the large room became silent as the players turned to the door and saw Lloyd. The teen had his head turned down to look away from the angry looks from everyone and followed closely next to Kai as he escorted him inside. A lone player looked at his dish and took a handful of food and threw it at Lloyd to have the crowd of players laugh at him as he sighed to the abuse.

Cole glared at the player to walk over to his table and crossed his arms. The player kept his smirk on and threw another handful to the knight. But the knight quickly grabbed a butter knife to have it glow a bright purple and reflected it back at his face. He then grabbed the table to flip it onto the player to have crowd become silent. "Mess with him," he threatened. "You mess with me." He saw him nod and moved back to the others.

"Allow me to get us a private dining room." Zane insisted and came to a set of closed doors. He paid the room fee and opened the door for his friends and closed it behind them. The room was fairly large with a large table for five people to sit with cusioned chairs and fine decorative paintings were on the walls. "I believe this will be fine."

Sighing, Lloyd brushed the tossed food off his shoulder and rested his head in his arms. "It's fine." he said, quietly. "Look, I'm sorry if I never told you who I really was in IRL. I just didn't want people to recognize me from many newspapers or magazines. Now that Morro revealed who I am, everyone hates me because he blames my family for something I didn't even do."

Kai took a seat next to the teen and rubbed his back to comfort him. "Hey cheer up, Kid," he said. "Don't let them walk over you like that. Those guys are idiots and jerks to pick on you. But we won't let them hurt you like that. Morro did this, not you. We don't care if you're like famous outside the game or not, it wasn't your fault. Your grandpa probably had a reason to do this to Morro's." He grabbed a menu and slipped it underneath his arms. "Now sit up and enjoy some breakfast. You don't want to starve, right?"

A smile came from the teen to sit up in his chair. "Fine fine," he said and browsed the menu book. An NPC waitress came to their room to take their orders and came back a few minutes later with platters of their dishes. The food smelled wonderful to him as it reminded him a time when his cousin once cooked breakfast for him and his sister and slowly began to eat to feel the pain slowly leave him. A couple minutes passed and Lloyd turned his attention to Jay as he stared at his plate as he had not touched it since he got it. "So. . .what did Morro mean to call you a thief?" he wondered.

A sigh came from the auburn as he slowly began to eat his meal. Lloyd realized he stepped on a mine to anger him and probably didn't want to talk about it. "I crossed a path with bad people one time," he replied. "In order to improve my crafting skills, I needed certain supplies in order to make my stuff. Like my taser thing."

"Wait seriously? You made a taser?" Cole asked, sipping his tea.

"Yeah he did." Kai nodded, remembered being a victim of it. "Hurts a lot too."

"So one night, I was in this guild's headquarters as they had the right supplies I needed and stole what I needed." he continued. "But I got caught and nearly died when escaping. Now there's a bounty on my head from the group. I've been running and hiding, been looking over my shoulder for anyone after me. I've heard rumors that the guild that's hunting me was overrun and killed off. But I'm not too sure of it to believe it." A sigh came from him to rest his head on the back of his chair. "I've got greedy and now this is my mistake. My curse until I get out of this game."

"Don't feel worry though, Jay," Zane said to him. "It was a mistake, yes. But one you couldn't resist. So if anything, I'd be happy to be by your side to help protect you." A smile came from the auburn to smile back.

"Count me in too, Jay." Lloyd said. "I've always been a loner and now with everything that's happening right now, it'd be better to be with friends." The idea of teaming up with friends felt odd. Even with the idea of unknown players he met. But the thought of Brad and Gene flooded his mind and wondered about them since he hasn't heard of them. They're probably mad at him for leaving them in the beginning.

"Since I don't have a guild anymore." Cole stated while finishing his tea. "I guess I can tag along to help out. I'm agreeing with Lloyd that fighting against the Overlord's army is also fighting with our friends so there has to be another way."

All eyes were turned onto Kai to have him stutter, but he sighed. "As much as I don't like it," he said. "I guess I'll come along. After all, we all together survived the night from the Dark Creatures, we're capable for anything then. We have family outside of the game that want to see us, so this will be our chance to leave." Lloyd smiled to see he was joining up than going after the Overlord alone like he had planned to before.

They were a team now.

* * *

The morning sun was still rising along the mountain side as the five players had moved down the mountain stairs to a training field of the village. Zane stood in the center of the of the area and around him were his new friends they had their weapons drawn out. In his hands were his new shurikens as he stood still to study his teammates and felt the back of his head buzzing as someone was charging behind him. He quickly ducked to see a scythe fly over his head and threw a kick to Cole's chest to push himself back.

He heard Kai shouting at him as he charged and swung his sword to the cloaked player and he used his shurikens to deflect the katana blade. He caught the blade with the ends of his weapons above his head and from the corner of his eye saw Lloyd charging at him with his sword. He pushed Kai away to jump and twist his body over Lloyd's weapon to land and kicked him in the back and turned to Jay as the auburn thrusted his spear at him. He dodged the spearhead and caught the tip with the center of his weapon and knocked the weapon out of his hands. He was breathing heavily and looked at his weapons, they felt natural to him.

"Not bad, Zane." Kai commented and sheathed his katana. "I guess we judged you early when paying for those weapons.

"Yeah you were quick with those." Jay added after kicking his spear into his hands.

Zane smiled to the compliments and placed his shurikens into the holster attached to his belt. He wasn't sure how he was able to fight when having amnesia, but it felt wonderful to him. "Thank you." he said. Something came to him after they decided to team up together. "But please answer this though, where are we going now since. . .everyone here doesn't appreciate us?"

Lloyd wondered the same thing. That was a good question. Jamanakai Village was a hot area now because Morro had all the players turn onto him. But he wasn't sure. "Well. . .I'm actually curious on this," he heard Cole speak up to turn to him. "Dareth said there is a way to defeat the stone army and he encountered a scout. So I wonder if the area where Dareth said is true about more stone men."

"You think it's a possibility that's where the Overlord is hiding?" Jay wondered.

"Maybe, I'm not too sure though."

They glanced at each other to shrug, they had to wonder. They heard heavy footsteps to turn to watch Karloff walk over to them with Morro smirking beside them. They gave him a hard stare. "You honestly think you can find the Overlord?" the raven haired player asked, mockingly. "Why even bother helping the brat? He's going to lead you to your death."

"No thanks to you." Jay hissed. "Because you had to humilate him in front of a lot of players because of something your grandfather did to get kicked out of the company. Perhaps he had a good reason."

Angered, Morro glanced at Karloff to see him nod and threw his gloves on. They glowed a dark red color as he threw the punch at the auburn to have him scream as he flew into a fountain. "Hey!" Kai shouted and drew his katana out and charged at the green clad player. He watched the man use his thumb to push his sword out and glanced at the blade and swung his sword. But it was quickly deflected. He charged again to swing his sword as Morro glanced at his blade again and deflected his attacks over and over. The samurai was breathing heavily and sheathed his katana as it was pointless when being in a safe zone.

"Liked my blade?" he asked, smirking. "It's called the Sword of Sanctuary. Its ability allows me to see players and enemies' attacks before they strike me. I'm invincible with it."

"That's almost cheating!" Jay argued as he climbed out of the fountain.

"I prefer it as reliable." Morro retorted to sheath his blade and walked away with Karloff following suit. "Just ditch the brat and move on with your life in this prison. He won't be helpful to you."

The five players glared at him as he left. Touchy, they noted about him. A sigh came from Lloyd and sheathed his sword and opened his menu to reapply his armor. "Come on," he said. "Let's move if we want to know this is true about the Overlord. Dareth said the Spirit Coves was where he found the scout. So let's head east."

"Fine by me," Kai agreed and reapplied his samurai armor to watch everyone else donned their armor on. "The sooner we leave this crap town, the better we can be away from that creep." He saw them nod and lead the way with the others following down the stairs to the mountain base.

* * *

On top of the mountain, deep green eyes glared at the group of five players as they disappeared into the Forest of Tranquility. His attention was more toward Lloyd as he was the last to move into the forest to snort. Should've took his advice, but they still followed the blonde haired teen. He turned to the shadows in the alley on his right. "Do whatever it takes to kill these fools." he demanded. "But spare, Lloyd Garmadon. I want to kill him myself."

"As you wish." a feminine voice said to smirk as her purple eyes gazed the group of players. "I think I know just the way to do so."


	14. Where Do We Go From Here

**Chapter 14: Where Do We Go From Here?**

He paced around the hospital room in worry for hours. His dark eyes turned to the teen resting on the bed to feel worried for him as he laid motionless with a NeuroGear over his face. The man gave up on pacing to take a seat on the plush chair in his son's room while his distraught wife rested her head on his bedside. He sighed as she held a one sided conversation with her comatose son and knew it was waste of time as he probably couldn't hear her when his mind was in another world.

Day and night, his mind was focused on his youngest son. Sure he would go back into his normal routine with running a large company with his brother. But his trapped son was a main priority on his mind. Not only him, but his daughter and nephew would visit Lloyd every day as they were worried for him. And his brother and sister-in-law would do the same. They were all worried for Lloyd and hoped he would leave the game and wake up.

Garmadon turned back to his wife to sigh again as she continued to talk with the boy. "This isn't going anywhere, Misako." the man said. "I don't think Lloyd can hear you when his mind is somewhere else than home." He walked over to her to rest his hands onto her shoulders to rub them softly.

A sigh came from the woman as she had to agree with him. It seemed true then. She once read an article that coma patients were able to hear around them and could recall the conversations that happened in the room. But with her son trapped in a video game, his mind was shut off from the outside world where his virtual body can speak and hear. A difficult fate to face with and wished as her husband for him to wake up soon. It's been half a year now and he was still trapped.

Sighing again, the woman pulled herself up from Lloyd's bedside to watch his chest rise and fall softy as he 'slept'. "I know. . ." she said, quietly. "I just thought that maybe, just maybe, he can hear his mother's voice for once. It's just too much to bear with right now."

Garmadon nodded with her to wrap his arms around her waist and held her close to him. It was too much to bear with, but only time will tell when his son and thousand of other players can leave the game for good. What was taking Cyrus and Neuro so long to try and free the players? "Yes, I wish he can hear his mother's voice too." he agreed.

* * *

The warm sun was beating down onto five players as they made their way through the virtual world of Ninjago. Day and night they traveled a far distant to their destination in hopes to find the Overlord Virus. They were informed it was in east where a lone player had found a scout of the virus' army. This was their goal now. To find the Overlord Virus and hopefully a chance where they can fight their jailor and free everyone from the game.

Lloyd followed along with the group of players, chatting with them as they walked down the dirt roads to the next towns. He even found himself intrigued with his new group of friends. Each one had a different personality that he had grown a liking to. Cole, a strong teen with a strong will that gave him the impression of him being a leader; hence why he had his own guild then. Kai, a rough start to get to know for being a hothead, but has a soft side for when they get to know him more. Jay, a childish guy who would try to make them laugh despite if they were mediocre-like, but they found him fun to hang with. And there was Zane, a player with amnesia that can't recall anything of his life outside the game, but when being around him, they soon learn more of his personality of who he was. A quiet, odd, person who doesn't seem to understand phrases and has to question them, or even Jay's jokes. But they know that he'll figure it out eventually whenever his amnesia clears up.

But what does that make Lloyd then?

Lloyd, a teen that became trapped in a video game just like thousands of other players. But a regretful person who left his two best friends behind in the beginning of the game. Since then been a loner, not wanting to do anything with other players and venture in Ninjago Online alone. Just quiet and distant from others. But that eventually changed on him to be someone different.

The blonde haired teen found himself closer, more open up to people he can trust. From Kai's stubborness to Jay's curiousity of adventure. And Cole's boldness as a leader to Zane's unknown personality. Out of these four players he found, he made them into a team, everything he done. A team that were seeking their goal to defeat the Overlord Virus.

"So where do we go from here?" he heard Jay ask. Lloyd broke free from his thoughts to continue trailing with his friends as the auburn had his menu open in front of him. Jay studied the holographic map to study their location and surroundings. A look of confusion crossed his face as they continued to walk down the path, it was still afternoon, plenty of time to find the next town before the Dark Creatures came out. He closed the menu to huff and pout. "Seriously, where do we go from here?"

Kai turned to him to give him a light glare to roll his eyes and continued walking. For possibility an hour, Jay has nothing but been complaining and it was giving the samurai a headache. "Isn't it obvious, Jay." he stated. "We just keep heading east and reach the far end of Ninjago. Then we find where the virus is."

"I get that," Jay whined. "But I want to be sure we at least find the nearest town so we don't encounter those Dark Creatures. I, for one, don't want to face those things again."

"What? You're scared of a little wolf attack like last time?" Cole teased to receive a glare from the auburn. He chuckled lightly, but he had to agree with him. They had been traveling for a long time now and haven't see a town or village to take refuge in for the night. "But yeah I agree, there should be a town nearby. Just have to keep an eye out for a sign or something."

The five suddenly stopped to the sound of a player screaming in the distance. It sounded like a cry for help to make the five draw their weapons out and rush to the source. They veered off the path to run through the thick foliage of the forest to break free from a bush to study their area. A burly player with a thick beard and black cloak was surrounded by a pack of feral wolves armed with only a dagger. The odds of him making it out alive were low than they could think. They had to help him and not let him be part of the Overlord's army.

"Just remain calm, we're here to help." Cole said to the man and studied the wolves. "Lloyd, you and Jay flank them from the right. Zane, use your shurikens to distract them and get away from him. Kai, let's deal some damage here." He saw the samurai nod and charged with him.

Jay and Lloyd quickly rushed to the right and watched as Zane threw his weapons to hear the wolves yelp in pain to turn to him and charged for him. The spear and long sword glowed a bright aura of their color and struck to any of the unsuspecting wolves to have them destroyed on impact. The knight and samurai jumped to have their weapons charged and struck the remaining wolves until all remained were the players. A simple task, easy mission.

A loud sigh came from the burly man to slump to the ground in relief. A close call for him then if the five didn't show up on time. "Oh thank you so much that." he said, sincerely. "Another minute I would've been dead and become our captor's army."

A smile came from each of the players. "It was no problem really." Zane said as he sheathed his shurikens. "But what happened to you to have yourself surrounded by those wolves?"

Another sigh came from the man to collect himself and sheathed his dagger and pulled himself to dust himself off. "To be honest, I was minding my business and decided to doze off to not mentally exhaust myself. And the next thing I know is that I'm surrounded by those creatures." He cleared his throat. "My name is Boris, I'm not much of a fighter as you saw, but more of a merchant. I go from town to town as a traveling merchant to help players outside the walls in need of health potions and other supplies. Can I help you with any wares for you five?"

A traveling merchant huh? Lloyd hasn't seen one that is a player. Most merchants in the game are NPC's. But from time and time, players began to set up shops in order to make profit and help players, such as Kai with his blacksmith shop. But this was a player that would risk his life to find other players to sell his products in their need. And that meant he must've came from a town nearby. Which was what they were looking for.

"Actually we're pretty stocked up at the moment." Lloyd stated, lightly. "We were wondering however if you know the location of the next town is seeing that you must've been there recently."

A light hearty chuckle came from the man to nod. Indeed it was true. "Yes I have and I will gladly be happy to show you the direction." Boris said and turned to point in front of him. "By going this way, you'll reach the town at sunset, plently of time before the Dark Creatures come out. I'll let you know this, the next town is in the Sea of Sands like in IRL. But it's the closest town in the game. And don't worry about me since I won't be coming with you. I'm meeting with a convoy of other merchants." He quickly checked his inventory and began to make his way from them. "Best of luck to you five."

The five players stood alone as they watched the merchant leave and turned to the direction where he point at. A village all the way out in the desert then. Well if a merchant was right for traveling to different villages or towns, he would know everyone location of his travels. "Well you heard him," Cole said to lead on. "If he says the closest town is this way, it's this way." The rest of the players glanced at each other to shrug and followed after night. The closer they can get to town, the closer they stop at an inn for the night.

* * *

From the distance, perched on a tree branch, a lone player spied on five players as they ventured through the forest. He softly stroked his beard to smirk lightly as they continued into the direction without any detours. All according to plan now. "Soon you five little players. Soon." he spoke with a female's voice and his dark eyes flashed purple irises. The player chuckled lightly


	15. Ouroboros

**Chapter 15: Ouroboros**

The sand shifted under their feet as they trekked through the Sea of Sands. The afternoon sun was baking the back of their necks as the heat of the desert was getting to them. They've been walking through the desert for hours, Cole even had to remove his armor so he wouldn't overheat in it. They began to doubt the information the traveller merchant had given them as they slowed their pace through the tall hills of sand. They started to think this wasn't a shortcut nor was a town that could help them to the village near the Spirit Coves.

The sun was slowly dipping in the horizon to feel tense as they haven't seen any town within their range. Not even their maps said anything, another night of the Dark Creatures was going to happen and they knew it. They felt nervous as they face against creatures in the sand. "I'm starting to doubt this way to the next town." Kai grumbled. "We've been lost in the desert for hours and soon nightfall will be here and we'll be beaten by the Dark Creatures since we don't know what they're like here. I like the heat and all, but this is stupid."

Zane turned to the samurai to shrug as the temperature wasn't bothering him much. He felt cold than warm, but rather kept it to himself. But something caught his attention ahead of them to see a faint dot in the distance. "Take heed to this," he said and pointed at the direction. "I believe this is the city the merchant was referring to."

"Zane, I think the sun got to you and are just seeing a mirage." Jay doubted.

"No. I'm serious."

Lloyd turned to the direction where Zane was pointing at to squint his eyes. He noticed through the heatwaves on the ground didn't affect the faint dot in the distance to realize he was right. "It's the city." he said to noticed the others were noticing it too. They felt renewed energy fill inside them and quickly ran to the city in the desert.

They slowed their pace as they reached the entrance of the small city to raise a brow as they glanced around. Sand color stone buildings were in ruins, aged from time and weather damage. Small mounds of sand were formed along the buildings from the gusts of winds with an eerie silence around them. There wasn't any NPC's or other players around them; a ghost town. The group found themselves in the center of the city to see a spiral stone paved path with a towering wall structure that appeared to have seats on top. In front of them, a large stone statue of a snake glared down at them.

Jay gazed around the deserted city and crossed his arms over his chest. A glint of annoyance was in his hazel eyes. "Isn't this just great." Jay pouted. "We came from Jamanakai Village to nothing but a ghost town. I'm starting to agree with Kai on doubting that merchant. Like he knew where the correct path was. Where are we anyway?"

Shrugging, Lloyd opened his menu to view his map. He blinked as something didn't feel right as the location of the city was unknown. It read _Undiscovered_. Even the others read his map to raise a brow to the unknown location. His map blinked to have the teen turn back to his map and watched the name of the city renew itself. _Location Discovered: Lost City of Ouroboros._

"That's. . .odd." Cole said, puzzled. "If the merchant knew of the location before us, wouldn't our maps already shown us the name of the town?"

"Maybe it's a glitch in the game?" Kai shrugged.

"I think Cole is right though." Zane said. "If the merchant had seen this town already, our maps would've told us the location. Like in all other locations of Ninjago Online." He turned to the snake statue. "I don't like the looks of this. Something doesn't feel right." They nodded with him as they had the uneasy feeling too.

The ground underneath them suddenly began to shift to alert the five and move aside as the ground began to open up. Rushed footsteps alerted the five players to see someone in a black cloak running towards them to jump over them and land behind them. They were surprised to the merchant had followed them to the city, but they were uneasy to the smirk he formed on his face. With quick hands, he grabbed Lloyd by his coat and threw him against the snake statue with his head hitting against the stone to feel dazed. The others quickly drew their weapons out to fight against the merchant, but he dodged their weapons and threw his cloak to their faces to kick them into the splitting ground and watched them fall in the pit. He gazed down at the large pit to watch the players pull themselves to their feet.

His head was ringing to pull himself to his feet and quickly rushed to the edge of the pit to see his friends trapped. He turned to Boris and drew out his sword. "You said you were helping us," he hissed. "Yet you attacked us and my friends are down there. Who do you think you are?"

The merchant turned to the still dazed teen to laugh. But it didn't come deep and masculine, it rather came light and feminine to raise the brows from the five players. "Naive players you are." the merchant said, voice changing. "Naive enough to fall into my trap. This isn't a safe zone city, this is an arena. Where your maps wouldn't have told you where you were. As for me." His brown eyes shifted to purple and threw his black cloak over him and moved away to reveal a female player in light metal armor and bright purple hair. "I'm Chamille. Morro sent me."

Lloyd gasped quietly. "Morro?"

"He said he wanted you alive and wants your friends killed off." she said and turned to the four trapped players. "Welcome to the Slither Pit. This is where you'll die and will become the Overlord's army."

Angered, Kai drew a knife from his belt to have it glow a bright yellow and threw it at Chamille. But she moved her head aside to miss the blade. The samurai growled. "You think keeping us down is going to stop us?" Kai shouted. "We will get out of here and will send you back to Morro with a yellow back."

Chamille just laughed. "It's not just me who's keeping you down here." she said. "Something else down here. The fate of my victims I send down here."

"Victims?" Jay asked, nervously.

The sand around them shifted to almost lose their balance as they watched a mound of sand circle around them. Their hearts were racing to grip their weapons tightly as the mound of sand kept circling them until it disappeared. Something broke from the sand to have the four shield their eyes from the sand particles and felt frozen to spawned from the sand. A large dark green snake with sickly pink eyes, large fangs, and the tail of the snake was a piece of sharp bone cartilage. The creature hissed to the four to roar with the hood on its neck fanning. Jay had to scream loudly to the large snake.

Lloyd's eyes were wide to the large snake to see four HP bars appear below its name; _Great Devourer._ The snake's coils surrounded his friends as they were frozen to move as the creature studied them. He turned to Chamille as she sat on the ledge of the pit to watch the fate of his friends and charged to push her in. But he saw her peek from the corner of her eye and drew out her rapier sword to his throat. "Hurt me, I'll push you in with them." she threatened him. "But I can't since my boss need you. Alive."

He felt frozen now as they felt frozen to the snake. His life was on the line as theirs were. Why did Morro want him though? He kept glancing at his friends and back at Chamille. "Let them go." he demanded. "They don't need to die. If it's me you want, take me and let them go."

The purple haired teen laughed to keep her sword on his throat. "Where's the fun in that?" she teased and turned to the pit. "My friend needs food after all. I'm taking you regardless."

Lloyd felt his back turn stiff to feel worried for his friends as he kept darting his eyes to the pit and back at the shape shifter player. He wanted to jump to help them, but Chamille had him pinned to move with her sword at his throat. Kai saw the worried gaze in his green eyes to draw out another dagger from his belt to have it glow bright yellow again. "Lloyd! Run!" he shouted. "We'll take care of the snake and get out of here." He threw the knife to Chamille's sword to move it away from his throat. Lloyd shook the uneasy feeling away and threw a kick to her chest and turned to run from her. The girl hissed to chase after him. The samurai smirked and turned back to the snake to grip his katana tightly. "So. . .how do we fight against this?"


	16. The Great Devourer

**Chapter 16: The Great Devourer**

His breathing was becoming quick and shallow as he ran through the large pathways in the ruined city. Behind him was another player under the leadership of Morro that wanted him captured. And his friends were now trapped in a large pit with a large snake. Now he was on the run being chased by a player that can change her appearence from illusions. He had to save his friends, but he had to avoid being captured by Morro's follower.

He came to a four way road and looked around for any place to hide in. He could hear Chamille behind him and quickly rushed to a small hut and quietly closed the rotten door beind him. He held his breath as he heard footsteps approaching nearby to remain quiet and heard the footsteps move away from his location. He waited for a few moments and sighed quietly to slump against the door.

* * *

A hiss filled the large pit as pink eyes glared down at four trapped players. Their eyes were wide with fear as they stared at the large snake to feel frozen to move. Their weapons were drawn out and held their ground and became alert everytime the snake moved its coils. They had to find a way to kill the creature and escape the pit to rescue Lloyd before he was capture from the player that called herself Chamille. What did Morro want with him since they only met him in one day?

"Any ideas?" Kai asked. "Anything?"

Jay turned to the samurai with wide eyes and back at the snake. "It's a large snake, Kai!" he exclaimed. "I don't have any ideas for this. I don't know how well our weapons will work against this thing. Even with Zane's shurikens." The cloaked player looked at the identical weapons in his hands to nod. "I feel like we're hooped on this."

"Think of this though, we're all in here together, yes." Zane stated. "But I believe we have the potential to fight against this thing."

"Easier for you to say," Cole chasisted. "As Jay said, we're not sure how well our weapons will handle against this thing. Plus we don't know how strong this thing is." He felt the ground shake to turn and watch the bone tipped tail sprout from the ground and hover above them. "Behind us!"

The snake swung its tail to the group and all four player's weapons glowed a different color and huddled together with their weapons together. The bone tail made contact to the weapons to feel a powerful force rock them, but they stood their ground as the snake retreated its tail. The Devourer roared loudly and lunged itself to the four trapped players to jump out of its way and attacked it as best as they could. The snake slithered around in the large pit to circle around the group; only a pinch of its health went down to make the four nervous. "This is going to take longer than we thought." Kai sighed and gripped his katana tightly. "Let's hurry this up and get Lloyd out of here before he's gone."

* * *

The footsteps returned to alert the blonde haired teen to hold his breath as he peeked through a small knot in the door. He could see Chamille calmly walking down the sandy path, cloak wisping behind her. Her violet eyes glinted seductively as she scanned around for her prey. "Come out, Little Lloyd," she called out to him. "You can't hide forever. I always find my prey and they always come out."

Lloyd kept his breath held to move his eye away from the knot as she turned to his direction and remained still. He could hear the roar of the Devourer as his friends fought against the creature. Chamille was silent to him and he carefully peeked out to see she was gone and saw someone walking down, wounded. He gasped as he saw Kai. "Lloyd?" he called out to him. "Where are you? We managed to escape, but the others are in need of help." He slumped against the wall.

Relieved, the green clad teen rushed out of the hut to run over to the samurai. But when he reached him, he felt nervous to his growing smirk. "Too easy," Chamille's voice said, eyes flashing violet. Lloyd gasped to start running again with the samurai following after him.

* * *

Their breathing was becoming ragged and fatigue as they fought the snake. A quarter of the Devourer's four HP bars were gone, but the creature still had energy to move and kill them. But they were starting to get tired than ever. This was becoming worse when facing any of the Dark Creatures.

The Devourer lunged its tail at the four players to have them jump out of the way, rending it to be caught in the ground. This was a chance for them to attack its tail. But Zane sighed a bit as his shurikens didn't seem to do some damage. "Zane, you need to step back and find some way out of this pit." Cole instructed him. "Your shurikens aren't doing much damage at the moment."

The cloaked player had to look at his weapons to nod, but he didn't want to leave them. "I can help you." he said and jumped back.

"What can you do with those!?" Jay exclaimed and jumped back as the Devourer freed its tail. "Those are better for close combat with swords. Not a giant killer snake!"

"I can help!" Zane shouted back and opened his menu. He searched for something to aid them, until an idea came to him. "I got it." He searched for the prize he'd received from the other night and tapped on it. A bright light sprung on his shoulder to reveal a small creature with a slender body covered by navy blue feathers and dark yellow eyes; a falcon. The creature craned its head around and squawked.

"A bird, really?" Kai said, nonchalantly.

"More of a falcon." Zane corrected him and held his arm out. "Now attack!" The falcon eyed the snake to squawk and spread its long wings to take off of his shoulders. It flew across the pit quickly and at the snake's face to attack its eyes to hear roar as it avoided the Devourer to attack its eyes more.

"Haha!" Jay cheered. "It's distracting it."

A smile came from the knight as it was working. But he watched the snake become angry and thrash around to avoid its tail swinging around. "But now, our biggest concern is getting hit by that tail." he warned them. He ducked from the tail again to lift his head up. "Zane, look out!" The cloaked player turned his head to the knight's voice to see the tail in front of him a second too late and felt it struck him and slammed into the stone walls. Angered, he grabbed his scythe to charge the blade a black aura and rushed to the snake and swung it into the ground to shake the pit.

His head swam with pain to groan and sat up to rub his head. But when he opened his eyes, he felt a cool feeling through his body as he stared at the snake. Everything had clicked back into his mind. "I remember everything now." he said to himself. His memories became clear to him as he pulled himself to his feet and calmly walked to the snake. His friends were knocked to the ground and they struggled to their feet to ignore their calls to back away from the snake. "I've got this." he said to them and turned to the snake. "You will not harm us or other players anymore."

He moved his hands across the open area to open a menu to make the others realize it was a console for the game. The cloaked player typed on the screen to have the snake lunge itself with its mouth wide open at him to have a blue dome surround him and deflected the attack. "Very well," he said, calmly. "We'll play that way." His hands glowed brightly and a large curved bow appeared in his hands and pulled the string back. A golden arrow formed in the notched string and aimed it at the snake's head to fire it. It sailed across quickly to strike a bright green speck on its forehead to hiss and roar loudly in pain and shattered.

Their jaws dropped to the surprise of what happened to the snake and turned to Zane, stunned to what he done. The bow disappeared in his hands and he turned to his friends as they pulled themselve to their feet and placed his hands on the ground. A grid had lit the pit and segments of the squares rose from the ground into a spiral staircase. "Come on, let's get Lloyd and away from here." he said and raced up the stairs with the others behind him. The grid disappeared and the stairs fell back into the sandy ground.

* * *

He was breathing heavily as he ducked into an alley to slump against the wall and held his chest. If he was really running this vigriously, his heart would be beating rapidly. To make matters worse, he was being chased from Chamille disguised as Kai. But he hasn't heard any of the Devourer's screams or anything of his friends. He felt worried now that their fate was sealed to the snake. He was alone to sigh.

He heard something sailing through the air to perk his head to see a glint of metal flash past his eyes to hear it strike next to him. His ears were ringing to the metal and turned his eyes to the sword pinning him to the wall by his coat and heard Chamille's laugh to feel tense and grabbed the sword to pull. He gritted his teeth as he struggled to free himself and felt a hand wrap itself around his throat to have him gasp to stare in the face of Chamille.

"I've had it with you running." she grumbled. She reached into her pouch to pull out a blue crystal. "Know what this is?" Lloyd studied the blue crystal to nod on what it was. Crystals in Ninjago Online were rare items to obtain from merchants, only those with the right amount of gold can purchase them. Blue crystals were known as teleportation crystals and red crystals were instant health revive. "Now that I have you, we can leave while your friends perish."

"Ahem." someone coughed.

His eyes were wide as he stared past the purple haired player to feel his virtual heart leap with joy. Chamille's breath hitched to the voice to turn and stood frozen as four players glared at her. The ones she had kicked into the Slither Pit. "How did you kill my pet and escape alive?" she growled and grabbed her rapier to thrust it at them. But Cole was quick enough to grab her wrist to dislodge her sword and twisted her arm behind her back.

"That's for us to know and for you to never find out." Jay stated and placed her sword into her scabbard.

Kai nodded and drew his katana out and held it at her throat. "Now we got a warning for you and to your boss." he said. "For whatever reason he wants Lloyd for, he'll have to get past us first. And whatever he throws at us, like what you did, we'll take it down like what we did to your snake. Got it?" He saw her nod, still stunned from escaping the Devourer. "Good, now leave."

Cole released her grip on her and all four stood guard of Lloyd. The purple haired girl growled and gripped the blue crystal tightly. "I don't know how you done it," she hissed. "But we'll throw everything we got to have him in our grasp. Teleport, Morro's hideout." A bright blue light surrounded her and it died down to reveal she was gone.

A sigh came from the blonde haired teen to slump against the wall in relief. Close call to his capture from Morro's follower. But he felt nervous to what she said as she left, to be in Morro's grasp. He had wonder what it meant. "Thanks for the help, guys." he said and took Cole's hand to pull himself up. "But how did you guys kill the snake and escape, alive?"

"You're not going to believe this." Jay said, estatic and turned to Zane. "But first, let's get out of here before nightfall. Zane?" Lloyd watched the player nod and opened his menu to tap on the holographic screen and a larger blue crystal appeared in his hands. After Kai made the command, the crystal broke and the blue light surrounded them.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Lloyd said, puzzled to what the others have told him. "Zane's memories came back and he. . .hacked the game to kill the Devourer and made stairs to escape." Nightfall had arrived, but the five players have found themselves back in Ignacia Village after Kai commanded where to teleport from the crystal. They sat themselves in the small den of the samurai's blacksmith shop, a fire in the hearth with the blinds closed shut to hide them. The blonde teen turned to Zane as he sat in front of the fire to meditate while the others sat around the lounging chairs to stare at him. "So. . .what are you then?"

He peeked an eye to make eye contact with his friends to sigh. "I'm not a human player." he replied, wondering how he had amnesia to begin with then. "Outside of this game, I was created by my creator who I called my father to work as an assitant for him. He even once worked with Cyrus Borg before he passed away." He bowed his head to sigh for his loss. "Since he was gone, I was decommissed and never seen from again. Until Cyrus and Neuro reactivated me and sent me to find you, Lloyd."

Lloyd blinked. "Me?" he asked. Even the others were puzzled. "Why me? And you're basically. . .an NPC?"

"More of a Artificial Intelligent, an A.I." Zane corrected him. "As for you, Cyrus Borg sent me to aid you to reach the Overlord Virus for I have the antivirus software in my algorithms."

"Still doesn't explain that then." Kai pointed.

Zane opened his menu to tap on the screen and revealed a diagram of a list of players. Lloyd studied it to blink as it was a list of the hundred players that had played the Beta of the game. Most of the names were darkened while few were still lit up, even the name of Brad's. "Cyrus wanted me to find the names of the players that had participated in the Beta trials of Ninjago Online." he explained. "But already in the first couple months, some of those players have fallen to the game's enemies and became part of the army. Lloyd was the next on my list, having experience to the game, and the nearest one when I found you four. But I don't know what happened to have amnesia."

"So you're the key to help us get out of this game?" Jay wondered.

The A.I nodded. "In a way, yes." he replied. "But in order for me to get you all out, I need to reach the virus and can override his binary codes with the antivirus I have that Cyrus and Neuro programmed into me."

Intrigued, they all were astonished that someone, mainly the developers of the game, had sent help for them. An A.I. even to help them beat the game and leave it once and for all. It meant now they were one step closer to the virus then. But the challenge now was to find where he was hiding to use the antivirus software on him.

A yawn broke through the silence to have their eyes turn to Jay as he stretched himself. Even they felt a bit tired after today's events. "Mm...I don't know about you guys," the auburn yawned again. "But after fighting a giant snake today, I'm ready to hit the hay."

"You're not the only one." Kai smiled and pulled himself out of his chair. "Luckily this shop of mine has enough guest rooms for us, take your pick." He opened his menu to remove his armor to be dressed in regular clothes. "Tomorrow, let's continue our path east and not follow any advices. We don't want to run into the same fiassco again. If the idea of the virus' army in the Spirit Coves are true, we got a way now to get rid of it once and for all."

Lloyd had to nod and agree with the samurai. But the thought of Morro and Chamille still lingered in his mind. He was now afraid of something in the game, usually he wasn't. Morro wanted him alive, but for what purpose was something he couldn't comprehend. But he yawned as he didn't want to think about it anymore and followed after his friends to retire into a room of his and instantly fell asleep.

He was ready for whatever Morro had to throw at him.


	17. Heading East

**Chapter 17: Heading East**

The morning sun loomed over the five players as they made their way through the Forest of Tranquility once again. But not to Jamanakai Village over west. They were heading east now to the Spirit Coves of Ninjago Online. They weren't sure how far or long it would take them to reach their destination. But to the five, it'll be a journey for them to embark as they moved, glancing over their shoulder in case Morro's followers were around for Lloyd. They won't stop for directions or ask for aid. They'll move east on their own wits.

Day and night, the five found themselves treking through mountains to snowy woodland areas of Ninjago. Battling through unknown creatures of Ninjago and even aiding other players along the way to direct them in the direction of the nearest village or town. Like their one night with the Dark Creatures, they didn't want others or unexperienced players visit their nightmare and fall victim to the Overlord's growing army. They continued down their eastward path, hoping to reach the end of Ninjago.

Lloyd stood in the middle of the group for protection from any attempts of capture with his map out. His green eyes studied the holographic screen to see if any areas of interest appeared for them to observe or dungeons to conquest for treasure. But nothing appeared to show than their location. The heat of the barren land was starting to get the best of him and his friends to remove his coat and their armor to cool off as they walked down the path. Not even a safe room if they had to use it for the night for safety and rest. "Does anyone have any idea what the town near the Spirit Coves is called?" he wondered to close his map. "Because Dareth forgot to mention that and I don't want us to wander into another trap like the other day."

"I've heard from the game's newsletter a long time ago saying it is called the Village of Stiix." Cole replied. "But I could be wrong though." The blonde teen reopened his menu to browse through of the recent events. Like in IRL, everyone had access to the media from newspapers to television of news and events. But being stuck in a virtual world to represent anicent Ninjago with no contact to the outside world, the game has its own newsline for recent events. But when Lloyd browsed through, he hasn't found anything for the town they were heading to. "Like I said, I could be wrong since it was a long time ago. So that article is probably deleted."

"So just keep walking east until we see the coastline then?" Jay asked to see the knight nod. "Well why not have Zane open like a portal or shortcut that can help us get there quicker?"

The A.I turned to the auburn to shake his head. Jay felt a bit disappointed to the denied request. "It wouldn't be wise for me to do anything of that." he stated. "Already I used my algorithms to defeat the Devourer, but I can't risk being exposed for the Overlord to notice my presence and have me exposed as a virus to him. Talk about irony though."

"Besides, it'll be best as well incase Morro or any of his followers are spying on us and don't take both Lloyd and Zane for his gains." Kai agreed. He glanced over his shoulder to see the blonde teen looking at his feet. "Still makes me wonder why they want you and what for?"

Shrugging, Lloyd wasn't sure. And he didn't want to think about it as well. "Who cares about that?" he said. "I could care less about it since I'm more busy with getting Zane to the virus to use the antivirus software. Besides, I'm not afraid of Morro with him blaming my family for his. I'm more mad at him than being captured by him and stuff."

"That's the spirit!" Jay chirped to smack his back. "With us as a team, we're capable to whatever he throws at us. Besides, any idea if we're close to a town or something. I'm starting to get hungry."

A smile flashed across the knight's face to the request. "I believe I can help with that." Cole insisted.

* * *

A fire pit surrounded the five players with Cole kneeling in front of it. A small cooking pot was over the fire as he stirred the pot. The smell had caught their interest, but the different shades of violet color of the soup made them a bit nervous as they never seen food as this. When Cole said he wanted to cook them lunch, they let him. They wondered now if they were going to regret it.

The timer of the pot rang to alert the players the meal was finished cooking and raven haired teen opened the pot's lid to give the violet soup anothe stir. A smile of accomplish came to him as he opened the menu of the dish and separated it into five bowls for them. A bowl of appeared onto their hands along with a small loaf of bread. "Well eat up then," he said to sit down on a log. "I call it Violet Berry Soup. A nice delicacy of my own than most ingredients of the game."

They all stared at the bowl of soup in their hands to feel worried now. Cole had created it by hand and they haven't asked him what his level of cooking was compared to Zane's S-leveled cooking skill. Jay glanced at his friends as they sat on the ground and took a seat as well to dip his spoon in the broth that was the entire soup, no noodles or any meat or vegetables. He gave out a shaky breath to cool his spoon and took the sip to have his eyes widen and almost choked to the taste that was horrific to him. His friends' eyes were wide as to his reaction. "Good isn't it?" the knight asked.

He lifted his head to the raven haired teen's smile to slowly nod and watched him turn his head away to quickly spit it out without him knowing. He gave out a shaky breath to try and regain his composure. He quickly started munching onto his loaf of bread to try and get rid of the taste of the soup. "Fair warning," he whispered to them, quietly. "Just eat it and don't upset him. He's capable of decapitating us with his scythe."

With that warning in mind, Lloyd turned to his bowl with fear growing onto him. He wasn't afraid of Morro after him, he was now afraid of Cole's cooking. Like Jay, he slowly took a sip of his broth to feel frozen to move and struggled to not cringe to the taste violating his mouth and turned to the others as they had the same facial expressions as he was having. He turned to Cole as he already finished his bowl and was browsing his menu, glancing over to them as they ate. This was toture to the four now as they didn't want to be rude with the knight.

* * *

Darkness and torches surrounded the man as he made his way through the long corridor. His brows were stitched together in annoyance, deep green eyes narrowed. He shoved his way past players that were in the complex he called home. Not responding to any of their calls to him as he made his way through. He came to the center of the complex to climb the stairs and entered into a large room, composed of a large library, a fireplace, a desk on one side of the room while the room next to it was a sleeping quarter for him.

He slammed the door behind him to surrounded by silence and sat down on the lounge chair near the fireplace. But even before he could try and relax, the silence was broken as there was a knock on the door. He glared at the one knocking on the door. "What?" he shouted. The door opened to reveal Chamille entering, a smile appearing on her lips. "What do you need, Chamille?"

The purple haired girl skipped into the room to lie across Morro's lap. She played with her hair to ignore his glare. "I have brought great news for you, Morro." she replied, happily.

"What great is there?" the raven haired man grumbled. He gently shoved her off of him to pull himself up and walked over to a counter to pour himself a drink in a chalice. "I'm still annoyed you managed to fail to capture the brat and lost a powerful boss in the game."

"Only because those other four somehow managed to kill it, not even those other strong players could bring only half of its health down." She slammed her fist into the wall to hiss. "My pet is now dead and I want to kill the one who gave the final blow to it." She quickly changed form into Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane to show her anger to the four before becoming herself. "Only one managed to do it, I'll just kill them all then. But I received a message from the Ghouls. Lloyd and his crew are heading east again, but they're getting closer to Stiix."

Intrigued, Morro stopped before taking a sip. Did he hear it correctly? He had placed a finger to his chin to think, but a smirk had formed onto his face. "Stiix then?" he said to see her nod. "I got an idea now. That will enable us to capture the brat once and for all."

She had to think for a moment about Stiix, but something came to her about the coastline town. "You think _he's_ going to help?" she wondered. "Even after he left our order and stole a rare item of ours. We should've killed him when we tracked him down."

Morro's smirk disappeared to sigh about her arguement. A person by his side betrayed them and fled. But he didn't care about it, he was more focused about Lloyd and capturing him. "He owes us for saving him once," he stated. "Of course he'll help, even if I threaten him a little." He turned and motioned the purple haired player to follow him. "It's time we pay our old friend a visit. Gather the Ghouls and send them to Stiix, but make sure they're not seen for when he arrives. Get Karloff and Turner, they're coming with me, I need you to stay and. . .get his room ready." Chamille nodded and disappeared into a different corridor.

A smirk appeared onto Morro's face as he opened his menu to have armor appear over his chest and shoulders and threw the black hood over his raven hair as he moved to the complex entrance. He made sure his sword was strapped tightly to his hip. And then turned as he heard two more footfalls behind him to see their smirk and pulled out a blue crystal to make the command. A blue light surrounded the three and disappeared from the stone wall complex. With their luck, this could be their chance to accomplish their goal. In Morro's case, personally.


	18. Village of Stiix

**Chapter 18: Village of Stiix**

Green eyes grew wide with relief as the teen climbed over the ridge. A smile grew om his face and glanced over his shoulder as he watched his friends catch up to him to see their smiles of relief. In the distance, they could see the virtual ocean of Ninjago and along the coastline was the village they were heading towards. The village closer to the Spirit Coves where Dareth had once said he found a scout for the Overlord Virus. Anticipated to reach the village, the five players raced down the ridge to walk along the coastline.

The sun was slowly fading in the horizion, but neither of them were afraid for any encounters to Dark Creatures. The virtual water crashed against the rocks and bluffs of the coastline to send sprays of salty water into the air. A salty breeze greeted the five players to feel miniscule droplets on their faces to feel content to the ocean. It reminded them, except for Zane, of the real ocean and wished they were in the real ocean. Everything in the game felt too real to them, like they were in the real world.

"Is it me, or do you really want to leave this game or not?" Jay asked. Everyone glanced at the auburn to what he said. Was he serious about staying in the game? "Think about it. Sure the downside is not eating real food. But this feels all too real and yet there's more freedom."

"But when you ask that, you're still under the prison of the virus until we beat this game." Cole pointed out. "So I do want to leave this game, but yet I agree with you on the open world in your hands and freedom."

Lloyd glanced over his shoulder to his friends about what they said to agree as well. But his main concern is more about Morro than the virus at the moment. But the open world and freedom felt a wonderful idea to him.

But the thought of his family invaded his head. His parents, sister, aunt and uncle and cousin were all probably worried about him being trapped in the game. All this freedom in the game felt powerful in his hands, but he'd rather get out of the game and open his eyes to the real world. To actually move, breathe, eat. . . The real freedom is to leave the game and be with his family. He had to wonder if they had the same idea too. Kai had mention he has a sister and Jay with his parents and Zane is an A.I, but what about Cole? "I wouldn't mind leaving the game though." he said quietly. "After all, I miss my family."

Kai smiled to his comment and patted his back softly. "I hear ya, Kid." he said. "I got family and a worried sister at the moment too outside this game. I just wonder that they're thinking right now while I'm lying on a bed, force fed through a tube."

"Same with my dad." Cole sighed. "I wonder what he's thinking when I'm stuck here, enjoying the sunset and sea here."

"My parents as well." Jay agreed. Zane glanced at his friends to look away from their eyes and focused on the path. The auburn saw him glance to wonder what he was thinking. "You alright, Zane?"

The A.I turned to him to shrug his shoulders to look back where he was walking. But all eyes were focused on him to sigh. "All of this talk about leaving the game and being with family leaves me feel like being. . .left out." he replied. "After all, I'm just a computer program artificial intelligences and my creator was the only father I had. I actually never felt like a human or anything. But in this game, I feel more alive and want to see what the real world is like. But I can't since I don't have a body or anything to use and be like Cyrus' assistant, P.I.X.A.L."

What they heard from him struck them hard. It was sad to hear. Zane was an A.I but he's been in a computer monitor for years before being activated again and sent into the game. They had to pity him as he was all alone and wanted to experience life. Even if he had a body as well. An idea struck Lloyd to give the A.I a small smile. "Once we leave this game, we should get you a body." he suggested. Zane lifted his head to give him a funny look. "My family owns a large company as we have a science division that works with robotics like Borg Industries. I can get a body made for you to sync your conscious into it and you'll be human like us."

"And then, we can gather together one of these days and hang out in Ninjago City." Jay added. Cole and Kai smiled in agreement. They all liked the sound of it.

Zane could only blink to what Lloyd was offering. He was willingly going to make his family's company make him a robotic body he could use and be an android. And be able to do things with others. And as Jay suggested, a day when they can get together and show him around in the real world. He just gave them a small smile. "Thank you," he said. "I. . .I would appreciate it so much." They all smiled together and continued walking along the coastline, enjoying the sea and view.

The sun had finally disappeared into the horizon and the stars began to shine above the land. But the five weren't in danger of encountering the Dark Creatures as they reached the village entrance to stop at the end of a bridge. "Village of Stiix." Zane acknowledged. "Cole was right after all." He studied the bridge that looked aged and misshapen to turn to the others. "But does this bridge look safe though to cross?"

Kai shrugged and took a step to feel the bridge rock from the ocean waves, but it held. "I guess since its the only entrance, it's suppose to look like that." he stated and began to move with the others behind them.

Once across the bridge, the five had to raise a brow as they were in Stiix. Close quartered, tattered looking, buildings rested on docks that stood and winded on the ocean floor. Smell of the ocean and dead fish filled the area with NPC's and players moving around the area. Even row boats were below them as NPC's moved around the underside of the town. Fish nets, anchors, and other kinds of nautical items hung around the buildings for visual effects to give the five players an uneasy feeling as it felt haunted to them.

"This is Stiix?" Jay wondered. "I was kind of hoping of a nicer town than this. This places feels. . .shady almost." He glanced at the players in dark clothing and glancing glares. "And shady players too."

"Well it's not like we can get robbed or killed here." Kai stated, glancing around. "But. . .I don't see much players here, just some that come and go. But they're not going anywhere during the night. So where can we find out any information about the Spirit Coves?"

They all shrugged. They didn't know where to go. Most time NPC's would offer information to players, but most times it was information to quests or locations to the next town. To them, they would have to ask another player, one that is living in Stiix than travelling players. "Let's just move around and see if a player would know." Lloyd said to take the lead. "One is bound to own a shop or something."

They followed after the blonde haired teen through the tight corridors of the wooden streets, browsing around the shady town. Players barged past them rudely to give them glares and moved on. They came across a tavern to peek in to find a bar fight happening between players to move away, knowing they won't get anything from the fight. This may be harder than they thought. They moved around more until they reached the village's edge and came face to a small rundown building to look at the sign. "Ronin's Shop?" Jay said, confused. "Hmm. . .This looks like the place. Would this guy know anything? What if he's an NPC?"

"One way to find out." Cole said and pushed the door.

The shop bell chimed softly as the door swung open and all five players entered. The small shop was tightly close together with shelves filled with weapons and armor to apothecary items. They browsed around until they came to a small desk that was in the back of the shop and waited for someone to come. They heard hushed voices in the backroom until it swung open and a new player entered. He was a middle aged man with a scruffy beard forming on his chin, dressed in light samurai armor compared to Kai's and a straw hat over his long burnet hair. A eyepatch with a crosshair design was over his right eye as he gave the five players a hard stare. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Are you Ronin?" Lloyd asked.

"Does the shop name not give you the clue?" he retorted back. "Because the answer is yes. Now what can I do for you five? I'm about to close up shop for the night so make it snappy."

"Look, we want to know if you have any information?" Kai stated. "Because we're kind of busy as well as you are."

The man gave them the hard stare still to sigh and moved some stuff on his desk aside. They could tell he wasn't in the mood now to them, but if it's something quick, may as well help them. "Alright make it snappy," he said to take a seat on the chair. "I'm closing shop and want to get dinner as well."

Lloyd glanced at his friends and Jay motioned him to ask Ronin about their next destination. He relunctenly agreed and opened his map to have it turn face the man. Ronin studied the map to look at the teen with a raised brow. "We want to know if you have any information on the way to the Spirit Coves?" he wondered. "Since you're living along the coastline, do you have any idea?"

The man studied the map, but he began to laugh a little. Lloyd glanced over his shoulder to see his friends shrug their shoulders. The shopkeeper collected himself and pushed Lloyd's map away. "Yeah I know the way," he replied. "But I'll tell you the path if you pay the right price."

"Wait, seriously?" Kai asked. "You're going to make us pay for a simple path?"

Ronin rolled his good eye and pulled himself from his chair to walk to his door. "Listen, Kid," he began. "The way to the Spirit Coves is a dangerous path. Those who seek it are likely dead once you step foot inside. So the question is why does the five you want to go there? I see a novice teen. A samurai. A knight. Another odd player. And a thief as well, I know there's a price on your head." He points to Jay. "So it's best that you don't go anywhere near it."

Sighing, Lloyd closed his menu to see Jay had his head bowed down in shame to feel pity for him. But he turned to the man as they needed the information to the Spirit Coves. "Look, somone in Jamanakai Village once told us he saw a scout of the Overlord's army," he said to race ahead and stood in front of Ronin. "We need to reach the Spirit Coves to see if it's true and-"

"And nothing!" Ronin interrupted. Lloyd was taken back to his tone. "Look, I'm doing you guys a favor and that's not getting you all killed off. I've heard bad things happen to that part of Ninjago Online." He moved Lloyd aside to reach his door. But instead of opening it, he locked it. "And I'm sorry to do this. But. . .I owe somebody here."

They all looked at each other, confused until they heard the back door open behind them. They quickly drew their weapons out as they recognized the man that greet them with his smirk. The five could easily recognize him under the ghastly like armor and hood obscuring his face; Morro. Lloyd felt quick hands grab his arm that held his sword and felt cold steel against his throat. He tried to escape from Ronin's grip, but the man had a strong hold on him.

"Hello again, you five." Morro said, removing his hood to have his raven hair hung out. "I thank you for helping me bring Lloyd closer. And I guess I'll pay you a reward as well." Lloyd felt nervous now as they were trapped. This was trouble for him now.


	19. Confrontations

**Chapter 19: Confrontations**

Tension hung around the small shop with four players glaring at a raven haired man. Their weapons were drawn out to his smirk, knowing they couldn't inflict damage to his health in a village. Behind them, the shopkeeper they were looking for had their friend detained with a knife by his throat. They should've expected it, Ronin was part of Morro's group to capture Lloyd. Now they were trapped, but they knew they had to get Lloyd of Ronin's clutches.

The raven haired man kept his smirk on his face as he paced the room, knowing their weapons couldn't hurt him. Nor would they reach him for his sword could see their attacks beforehand. Lloyd tried to struggle from the man's grip, but Ronin held a firm grip on his arms. "I've kept my end of the bargain," Ronin said to disarm Lloyd's sword. The metal weapon clattered on the floor. "You better keep yours or I won't give you him."

"Don't worry," Morro said. "I am keeping my end of the bargain. Just hand him over."

At that moment, Kai and the others blocked Ronin's path to Morro and kept their glare on him. His smirk turned sour to glare at them for the small shop. "You're not going anywhere near him," the samurai said. "We don't know why you want him, but he's not going anywhere. It's four against one, no way your sword can stop all of us."

Lloyd felt scared now to try and squirm from Ronin more, but the man held him still. He was thankful for the small shop to prevent the man from bringing him closer to Morro with his friends blocking the possible paths. He gave up struggling since it wasn't helpful to him and began to search around for away to escape the shop. There wasn't much room to run or hide, the windows were closed and small that couldn't let him escape through. The shop grew bright to have the teen trace his green eyes to the ceiling to see it was a skylight and it was open. "Guys," he said, calmly to have them turn to him. "I'm going to be fine. Just...let him through." He motioned his eyes to the skylight.

The four players watched his eyes move to the light to nod to his plan and moved aside. Morro's smirk returned and walked past the players to come face to face to Lloyd. He could see the fear in his emerald eyes. "Smart choice, Brat." he said, victorious. "Otherwise I would've had your friends killed in the fields."

"Yeah. . .smart choice for me," Lloyd said back, smirking. "Smart choice indeed. Kai, now!" Morro's dark green eyes went wide as he heard the sound of a weapon being charged to turn as the samurai threw a dagger to him and dodged it. Lloyd quickly ducked the dagger and heard Ronin cry out in pain to feel grip loosen on him and grabbed his sword from the floor. He charged to Morro to use his shoulder as a weapon to push him aside and climbed on the shelves to escape through the skylight. He glanced around the small docked town and jump off the roof and began running.

Back in the shop, Morro shouted out of anger as he pulled himself to his feet. This gave the guys a chance to rush to the door after Ronin had collapsed to the floor and unlocked the door to leave the shop. "Capture the brat!" he shouted. "Make sure he doesn't escape."

* * *

Lloyd ran through the tight streets barging past NPCs and other players, glancing over his shoulders incase he was being followed by any of Morro's followers. He ran into an alley and ducked behind some barrels that were there. His breathing was quick and tried to take deep breaths to calm down as he peeked over the barrels. But he felt something clamp over his mouth to make him squeak in fright and turned around to calm down as his friends met up with him. At least it was all four of them and not a single person that was Chamille like before.

Kai removed his hand off the teen's mouth to pat his shoulder. "Nice idea, Kid." he whispered. "But now we have to leave and get away far as possible. I should've expected that it was a trap."

"Where can we go, Kai?" Zane asked. "It's nightfall and the Dark Creatures are out. And we don't know what creatures the ocean has for us to fight against. This town is small, avoiding Morro is going to be difficult."

"We're basically sitting ducks at this point." Jay added.

Cole nodded with him and glanced out of the alley to see NPCs moving around calmly without much players in the wooden streets. Like they weren't part of Morro's group. "The coast is clear," he said. "Maybe we can-" There was a loud shout from someone to have all five glance upward to see a player jump off the building roof near them and jumped back as he landed near them. He slammed his gloved hands to the wooden deck to leave a large hole where he made contact. They recognized the player, Karloff, as he stood up. Cole quickly stood in front of them and held his scythe out. "Maybe we have to fight our way out now. I got this, Zane, I'll need your help. Lloyd, get out of here, now."

The teen quickly nodded as the knight and A.I stood their guard for him and ran out of the alley before Kai and Jay realized he left. The samurai and thief ran out as well and glanced around for blonde hair as he disappeared quickly from them. They glanced over their shoulders to jump out of the way as Cole came flying out of the alley to make contact to a market stand to make the NPC flee from her shop. The spiky haired burnet back to the alley as the large man had Zane by the throat. "Jay, you find Lloyd, I'm staying behind to help them. You're quicker than us and will find him quicker."

Nodding, Jay sheathed his spear and began to run to the direction where he may have spotted Lloyd. "On it!" he said. Players ran toward the fight while NPCs fled from the fight his friends were doing against Morro's bodyguard made it harder for Jay to run through the tight crowds to find the blonde haired teen. He finally pushed his way through to be in the town's square and looked around until he spotted a green coat. "Found him." he murmurred and drew out his spear to have his glow blue. Before he could unleash the speed boast like he used against the Fangpyres, he saw a white flash from the corner of his eye to get knocked off his feet.

A groan escaped from the auburn teen to pull himself to his feet, but to only see the white flash again to be tossed into a market stand. He pulled himself out of the broken market stand to see the white flash stop in front of him. It was another player donned in a white suit and light armor with styled dark brown hair with large sunglasses. "What's the matter, mate?" he asked. "Too fast for you." Jay glared at him to lunge for him, but the player was fast to move away from his attack to have Jay on the wooden streets. "I guess so. The brat is mine now. See ya." He took off running.

Jay was stunned to his speed to turn as he ran off. He knew he leveled his speed ability higher than most other players. But he was stunned to see his speed was higher leveled than his to become faster than him. He shook the thought away and quickly jumped to his feet and ran after him.

* * *

Lloyd ran up the stairs outside of a building and leaped over the railing to fall onto the roof of a building that was a level below the city. He glanced over his shoulder to see a player that wasn't his friends following after him to sprint harder and climb onto the other building roofs. He stopped to catch a breath and saw a white blur rush to him and nearly squawked as he came face to a new player. "Going somewhere?" the player asked and grabbed him by his coat. He opened his menu to have metal shackles appear in his hands.

His eyes were wide to the fast player and started to frail his arms from being grabbed. He heard someone racing to them to feel himself released and landed on the roof roughly and lifted his head to see Jay had tackled the man down. "Run, Lloyd," Jay shouted. "He's fast unless I can keep him distracted." The blonde haired teen nodded and quickly got back to his feet and ran on the rooftops. Jay continued to detain the man until he felt his elbow made contact to his face to lose his grip and watched him chase after his friend. "Get back here!"

"First one to catch the brat wins." the player challenged.

"Not going to happen!"

Fear began to rise upon him as he ran on the rooftops with his friend behind him helping him stop his chaser. First it was Chamille, now Morro was here with Karloff and another player that high level speed than Jay's. The green clad player was relunctant to have him captured now, for what reason he still wasn't sure. He saw the white blur of a player from a building next to him with Jay on the other side him in a blue blur and quickly glanced ahead of his surroundings. He saw a small crane ahead of him with a net full of crates hung inside to smile and pushed himself harder as he watched the player and Jay jump toward him and jumped to avoid them.

He grabbed onto the net and felt the momentum swung him around and kicked the fast player off the roof to land next to Jay clumsily. "Haha!" Jay laughed to lean over the roof ledge. "Nice one." He pulled the teen to his feet and both jumped as an arrow landed near their feet. Both turned to where the arrow was fired from to see ghastly looking players from the town's tower and watched some use their bows to tranverse down the ropes that stretched out in the town. "Great," Jay sighed. "This keeps getting better. The Ghouls are with Morro too, just run."

Before both could take off running, the white blur from the player knocked them off their feet to watch him stop in front of them. His sunglasses were broken to reveal light blue eyes as he glared at them. The blonde and auburn quickly glanced around to see they were slowly being surrounded by the villainous group known as the Ghouls that were all dressed the same in dark blue clothing and masks. Their bows were drawn and arrows aimed for them. "Turner, capture the brat now!" One of the archers shouted.

The player turned to the archers to give them a hard stare and drew out his sword. "Cool your jets, Archer." Turner grumbled. "I'm getting to it." He turned to the trapped players. "You need to stop running now. You're surrounded and there's nothing you can do. And you thief, the Ghouls are here for your Bounty. So it's best to not run now." Jay glared at him to draw out his spear and charged his energy into the weapon and ran towards the man in lightning speed. But Turner was quick to avoid his spear and grabbed him by the throat and twisted his arm behind his back. "So what's going to be, brat. Morro wants you and they want him."

Lloyd felt himself in a stand still now to glance around worriedly. The Ghouls surrounded him with their bows aimed toward him and Jay was caught by Turner. Both were in trouble with people after them. He watched the auburn struggle against the player and stopped as he pushed his twisted arm to hear him wince. "Lloyd, whatever happens," Jay said to glow his spear a white aura. "Just don't give up." He slammed it onto the roof to surround the players in a bright light. Lloyd saw the chance to jump off the roof and ran back on the streets and Jay broke free from the man's grip to sheathe his spear and ran the opposite direction.

The light died down to have Turner and Ghouls glance around confused to have the fast player shout out in anger. He watched Jay run through the tight crowd to take after him. Knowing him, he was following after his target.

* * *

Pieces of wood flew around as a large player threw a barrel at three players to have it shatter against a wall. A katana glowed a bright orange aura as Kai charged towards Karloff and swung to have his blade deflected against his metal gloves. The spiky haired burnet flew back to have Cole catch him and helped him to his feet. The large man only laughed to slam his fists together to taunt them to have the metal clang loudly. All three players were breathing heavily while Karloff remained still, unfazed or hints of tiredness on him.

All four saw a flash of light across the town and watched it die down to hear a player shout in anger. They suspected it was Jay and Lloyd's doing to see the Ghouls and another player give chase. "These guys just don't give up." Cole noted. "They really want Lloyd. We have to help them."

"But are you forgetting this guy here?" Kai pointed out. "I'm tuckered out right now and he's solid as steel almost."

"Perhaps we could do something to distract him." Zane suggested.

The man laughed to slam his fists together again and charged. "You could try, but no one is getting past Karloff." he shouted. Zane glanced around their surroundings and spotted a crane that had a pallet of bricks hanging above him. The A.I saw the solution and held his shuriken tightly and waited for a chance until he threw it. Karloff saw the metal flying toward him and ducked. "You missed."

"Wasn't aiming for you." Zane smirked. Karloff raised a brow to watch the shuriken fly upward and severed a rope to look above him. He screamed to cover himself as the bricks fell onto him. The dust build around them to have the three players shield their eyes and brushed the dust away to smile triumphly as Karloff was pinned and dazed under the pile of bricks. "With him dazed, let's find Lloyd and Jay and I'll use the console to get us a teleport crystal to leave."

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Kai nodded and all three ran out of the alley to find their friends.

* * *

He ducked behind a market stand to collect his breath to collapse against it. His legs were burning as if he was running in real life. His real body could possibly feel the endurance of his avatar. Lloyd calmed himself down to peer over the stand to see no sign of Turner or the Ghouls. He felt worried for Jay was leading them away from him since the Ghouls were after his bounty. He wanted to find the auburn, but he had to keep himself safe from Morro. Where were the others he wondered.

A loud stomp made him jump in fright to spin on his heels as Morro landed a few feet behind him. His deep green glare bore into Lloyd's emerald eyes as he drew out his sword. The blonde teen shakily drew out his sword, but decided to not attack for his foe's sword was able to predict his. "Enough running now!" Morro demanded. "The Ghouls are after your thief, Turner should've captured you quicker than Chamille, and Karloff is busy with your friends. Face it, it's over."

"Why do you want me for anyway!?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"For revenge," The Sword of Sanctuary glowed a dark green color as he charged his sword and charged to Lloyd. The teen quickly rolled out of the blade's way and swung his sword to the man's legs. But Morro had already saw into the metal blade and parried Lloyd's golden sword and grabbed him by the throat. "For my grandfather, he'll be avenged." Lloyd struggled against his grip until he threw his leg to the man's abdomen to feel him released and ran from him.

His heart was racing more as he glanced over his shoulder to see Morro chasing after him now and glanced ahead of him to see the edge of the town. Wooden posts were posted in the water and he jumped onto the first one and hopped onto each one until he reached the final one. He stared into the ocean as the water crashed against his post and look over his shoulder as Morro was a couple posts behind him and kept turning to him and the ocean. He realized it was stupid of him to jump onto the posts to begin with, but he now had a choice to fight Morro or swim in the ocean. He turned to Morro and drew out his sword, unaware of a tangle of plants climbing along his post.

He gripped his sword tightly while Morro remained calm on his post and lunged for him to suddenly realize he couldn't move his foot. His emerald eyes gazed down to his foot to watch a tangle of seaweed climb onto his legs and wound them together to climb onto his body. Panic clicked into his head to swing his sword to the plants ensnaring him until it latched onto his wrists and quickly sheathed his sword to avoid losing it and grunted as he pulled against the plants as they pinned his arms to his sides. "I can't move." Lloyd murmurred through his teeth. "What is goin-" He couldn't finish his sentence for the seaweed reached his neck and over his mouth.

"What's wrong, Lloyd?" Morro teased as he approached the teen. "Ever encountered Strangle Weed before?" Lloyd struggled more against the name of the plants, but the plants restrained him firmly into place. "You're past the town's safety limit where I stand is within. Slowly but surely, these plants will drag you into the bottom of the sea and drown you. But I want you alive, not let you die to these plants. I can help you, only if you agree to come with me, this is your only chance."

Fear clawed at his throat now to his predicament. The Strangle Weed had him trussled up and he could feel the plants slowly pulling into the ocean and began to push against it to prevent the threat of drowning. But now Morro had him captured now and could help him out from the plants. Without a choice, the teen nodded to Morro's help to see his smirk and the glimpse of his friends before the plants covered his eyes. "Excellent choice, Lloyd Garmadon." he heard Morro say to him and felt the weeds being cut off his body and being pulled into Morro's grip.

Lloyd had his head hung in defeat as the man gripped his coat tightly and perked his head to the sounds of his friend's calling out his name. He watched the four jump onto the wooden posts to rush to him, but he turned his head away from them. Morro turned to the four players to smirk as he pulled out a teleport crystal to give out the command and a bright light surrounded the two until they vanished from the posts. Kai and the others stopped as the two disappeared to feel fear clung to them for the safety of their friend.

"Lloyd, no." Kai whispered.


	20. Lost

**Chapter 20: Lost**

They stood silent, shocked to move or believe. None of them said a word or dared to not say a thing to what they witnessed. From their very eyes, they watched their friend being taken away from the man they've tried to avoid him from being captured. But not just from Morro, but as well his followers. But now, their friend was pinned against Strangle Weed which gave the dark haired man the chance to capture Lloyd and both used a teleport crystal to leave Stiix. And now they weren't sure where they teleported to.

Kai remained still as he kept staring at the wooden post where Lloyd was trapped on from the Strangle Weed and kept blinking to see if he'll come back. He couldn't believe it, it didn't feel right. The teen that had made four other players into a team and was protecting against Morro was now gone. The green clad player had their friend now and they weren't sure what he was going to do to him. All they knew was that Morro blamed Lloyd's family for his grandfather. The samurai had to wonder if he wanted revenge then for his grandfather.

The silence finally broke free from the four players as a spray of ocean water crashed against the docks and doused the players to wake up from their trance. A sigh came from Kai as he wiped the droplets from his face and turned to the others. "What are we going to do now?" he asked. "We have to get him back. Who knows what he's going to do to him."

Zane turned to the spiky haired teen as he rung his cloak of excess water. Being an A.I, he could see the distress in his chocolate brown eyes. "What can we do, Kai?" he asked. "Lloyd was outside the town's safety limit to be trapped by the Strangle Weed and now he's gone. I agree we have to get him back as he is the one who brought us together, but we don't know where Morro took him."

"Can't you open the console to hack the game and get Lloyd back?" Jay asked, fixing his wet auburn hair. "If you were able to defeat the Devourer with hacking the game, then this can't be any different." He turned to climb off the wooden posts with the others behind him. "Seriously, you can track Lloyd's avatar identification number and pull him back, right?"

Sighing, Zane shook his head to the auburn's request. He saw the others frown to agree with them. "Unfortunetly it's not that easy." he replied. "The binary code sequence to track down a player based from their identification number is harder than I can do. Plus I can't risk being decommissed from the virus if he notices me using the console. When I used it to defeat the Devourer, it was a minor mistake to use it and almost gave away my position. Using the console in public with other players around will be trouble as well."

Cole glanced at the A.I to nod as he understood. Zane didn't want to risk his life or even others if the Overlord found out the antivirus was present to kill him. "It's okay, Zane," he said to the platinum blonde teen. "We'll think of some way to get Lloyd back." His amber eyes lit up as an idea came to him. "And I think I know who can help us." He glanced around to see their eyes lit up as well as they knew who he was thinking of.

* * *

The bell shop chimed as the door swung up and a man exited from the pub. Tiredness clouded the man's eye as a yawn escaped from him as he stumbled his way through the empty narrow streets. The moonlight lit his path along with the torches that hung on the buildings. He turned the corner of a street to take a shortcut through an alley to see his shop and home at the edge of the town to feel relief as he could sleep for the night and get ready for a new day.

He came to his shop door to hear his bell chime as he entered and raised a brow as his lamps were bright in his shop. He felt confused as he swore he dimmed the lamps before he left after his encounter with Morro and the five other players. He shrugged as he made his way to his desk to remove his straw hat to fix his messy burnet hair and tapped on the nearest latern. A display menu appear in front of him and he selected all laterns to dim and the shop was soon in darkness to have him walk to his door to lock it. But he stopped as his shop lights brightened around him to turn around and came face to the players that entered his shop before.

His heart was racing as they each had their arms crossed over their chest and their brows were stitched together. But outside, Ronin remained calm to give them a hard stare. "Can I help you four again?" he asked and shoved past them to head to the back room. "REX's is closed for the night." He pushed his door open to stop in his tracks as a knife was thrown at him to turn and give them a glare.

"We know you were part of Morro's group." Kai stated to retrieve his knife back. "So he's got our friend and we want to know where he's taking him. Why else would Morro come to you for help?"

His glare remained on the samurai to snort and nudge past him. But he felt his shoulder grabbed to be pushed onto his chair. He was now surrounded by the four players. "What makes you think I know anything of that jerk?" Ronin asked and got back onto his feet. "Because I know nothing of him."

"Really?" Cole doubted. "Then why did you lock us in here before and restrained our friend when Morro came into the picture? Because obviosuly you work for him and refuse to tell us his location."

"Used to!" Ronin exclaimed. "I used to work for Morro." He watched their faces loosen up to his tone and moved past them and opened the back door and motioned them to follow. They entered a small backroom that included a small bed and kitchenette and lounging furniture. Ronin sighed to place his hat on a coat rack and turned to the four teens. "Look, I didn't want to help him in the beginning. Morro is sadistic to those that oppose him. This game can change players and maybe people in IRL. Now that he has your friend, I'm sorry but he gave me no choice."

"Then why did you help him?" Jay demanded.

"I was threatened under his anger and by his control of the Ghouls. He threatened me to drag me out to the town's safety limit and have the Ghoul archer that calls himself the Soul Archer to execute me." The shopkeeper sighed again to collapse onto his lounge chair. "A long time ago, I was part of Morro's group to hunt innocent players for toll fees and even quest through dungeons. One day after a dispute with him, I took a rare item from his collection and fled. Since then, I've been hunted down until they found me here and when I started my shop."

"So when Morro had me trapped," he continued. "he demanded I give him back the item I stole from him and I already sold it to open this shop. But he demanded that I repay him for the value of the item or else he'll have me executed for treason to him." He picked his head up to see their eyes were soft in shock to his tale with Morro. He snorted at them to not feel pity to him. "I didn't want to help him, but yet I didn't want to risk my life for being part of the Overlord's army. But why should I help a high tempered samurai, a knight, a quiet player who looks like he just woke without realizing he's in the game, and a thief with a high bounty." He glanced at Jay. "Who's even after you anyway?"

Sighing, Jay opened his menu to pull out a wanted poster with his face on it with the intesion to be captured alive. And below a high price of three million gold for his capture. "The guild that calls themselves the Djinn Skybound Pirates," the auburn sighed. "thieves among thieves led by the ruthless man known as Nadakhan who stole from other players and hold high valuable weapons and materials. They put a bounty on my head because I stole a rare metal I needed for my crafting skills and stole my spear from them and almost killed a player of their guild. So I've been watching over my back in case that guild have found me."

"I see. . ." Ronin said, but shrugged. "But look I'm not in the mood now. I'm sorry that your friend had been captured by Morro, but there's nothing you can do now. Going against Morro is bad business to you."

"And look what happened." Kai grumbled. He grabbed the man by his armor to lift him off his chair. He gave him a glare through his chocolate brown eyes to his eye and eyepatch. "He has our friend and he's more likely going to kill Lloyd because Morro blames his family for his grandfather. In IRL, Lloyd's grandfather and his were partners for a huge company and Lloyd's grandfather kicked him out. He wants revenge and we need to rescue him before he's killed. Lloyd can help us find the Overlord because he was a Beta tester and our friend here can use the antivirus to kill him off." He paused to what he said to glance over his shoulder to receive hard stares from his friends to look at the floor shamefully.

Ronin had a brow raised to what the samurai said and glanced over to the other players. He studied the white cloaked player to noticed he looked a little different than most players he had seen in his shop. Zane looked rather less human than a real human. "He's an NPC that can move and interact with other players and fight?" he wondered. "Yet he's like human almost."

"I'm more of an Artifical Intelligence." Zane replied. "I was sent from Cyrus Borg and Nuero Hisoko to find the Beta players to help me find the Overlord Virus and use the antivirus protocol to kill it and free all players. Lloyd was the nearest one when I encountered them after I lost my memory and he's been helpful to all of us. We want to find Lloyd and get him away from Morro as soon as possible. Please, you must help us. If you want to leave this game alive and not be part of the army, you better help us or keep paying your debt."

It sounded crazy to believe, but the player infront of him looked believable. He was something sent from the outside world that can help all remaining players leave the game. Ronin thought it was odd to believe them, but he sighed as he and many other players wanted to leave the nightmare of a game. He walked over to his desk to pull down a map of the game world that hung on the wall and turned to the teens as they studied the map. "Morro has a base of operations in the Sea of Sands." he explained and pointed at the spot where Morro had teleported to. "In this area over by a chasm and mountain area is the Kryptarium Prison. It was the prison of the game for unruly players until it became overrun by the criminals since there's no rules in the game since the Overlord took over. That's where you'll find your friend."

They studied the map to take note of the location where they can find Lloyd. They noticed the prison of the game was far from the Lost City of Ouroboros where they fought against the Devourer. They realized that with Zane not being able to use the console to teleport them, it'll take them days to reach the Sea of Sands to find the prison and Lloyd. But inside, each were ready to get Lloyd back before Morro killed him. They decided to leave by dawn as soon as the Dark Creatures were gone.

* * *

A scream tore through his throat as he felt the blade pierce through his body. His breathing became heavy and ragged as he winced when the blade moved out of his abdomen. He groggily lifted his eyes to stare into the deep green eyes of his torturer as he watched the golden blade of his sword swung around and felt it pierce through his leg to cry out in pain. His HP bar was slowly being depleted with an icon of bleeding appearing next to his health. His eyes were wide as his health bar was barely visible on the corner of his bar until he heard a crystal shatter to feel energy brush over his body to gasp as his strength and energy was revived to watch his HP bar return to full health.

His breathing was normal but he felt tired to move as his wrists and ankles were shackled to the ceiling of his cell. Sleep was begging in his body to hang his head in defeat. Morro glanced at the blonde teen kneeling to him to smirk and tossed his sword aside. The son of Garmadon was his prisoner now and he was enjoying this. His grandfather would be proud to see the revenge he was giving for his family. "Had enough, brat?" he asked, lifting the teen's face to see the pain in his emerald green eyes.

Lloyd tried to speak but his throat felt dry from the pain. The NeuroGear really effected his body and avatar to feel the same pain in the game. The blonde haired teen couldn't reply and tiredly moved his head away to have it hung. Morro smirked to the defeated looking teen and turned away with his ghastly cloak fluttering behind him. "Don't even try and hope your friends will come for you." he said before leaving the cell. "Don't want anything to do with you. All you done was bring trouble to them and I'm sure they're glad you're gone." He turned back and closed the wooden behind him to leave the teen in darkness.

His arms ached for being hung from the ceiling, but his chest ached in sorrow to Morro's words. His friends were coming for him. He knew it. It's only been a day or two, he wasn't sure for being enclosed in darkness and lost in time. But he knew Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane were coming for him to rescue him. But the words of him being the cause of trouble bore into his mind. He had them tossed into the Devourer's pit, had them fight against Morro's followers, even had them in the forest that night to face the Dark Creatures.

Maybe Morro was right, they weren't coming for him.

Lloyd shook his head to not believe it. They were coming for him, he could feel it. He had them team up together. To ensure Kai didn't get himself killed to the Overlord when alone. To repay Cole for the loss of his guild. To have Jay tag along. And to have Zane join them for when he lost his memories and to help him find the virus to use the antivirus on it. He held his hope to his heart as he closed eyes to fall into uneasy sleep, waiting for his friends to find him.


	21. Stranger Things

**Chapter 21: Stranger Things**

Pale alabaster fingers typed on the keyboards to have holographic menu displays surround her in an orb. Her hands brushed through her silver, metallic hair to straighten herself and began to trace her hands in her orb. Display images surrounded her as she turned on her heels and typed on the many holographic keyboards. She studied energy readings, server bugs for the game for Borg and Neuro that would needed to be fixed for the trapped players. Being an android, she was working on the clock for the safety of the players.

As she continued to work in her orb, something caught her attention to use her fingers to bring it closer to her and enlarged it to read. Her head was tilted as her lime green eyes studied the energy readings to the building of Borg's Industries to ponder and pulled open a new screen of the security cameras in the building. It was late at night, everyone working has gone home hours ago and yet the company shouldn't have this much of power being used at the moment. P.I.X.A.L studied the cameras to have her widen as she watched two individuals move through the lower levels of the building, they were dressed in hospital gowns with NeuroGears over their face. She closed the live feed and stepped out of her orb to rush to the elevator.

Her foot tapped nervously as she felt the elevator ascend to her creator's office and private suite and felt the compartment slowly stopped as she reached the top floor. Once the doors slid open, she raced across the office to reach Cyrus Borg as he rested his head on his desk. P.I.X.A.L could tell her creator was distressed with the amount of players trapped in his and Neuro's game because of the virus. But she calmly shook his shoulder to make his eyes snap and he quickly sat up in his wheelchair. "Oh P.I.X.A.L," Cyrus said, yawning. "Sorry I didn't mean to doze off. I had to deal with another press meeting and this stress is getting to me. You'd think Zane would've found the virus by now, but I don't know what's keeping him."

The android nodded to agree with him. But this wasn't the time. "I'm sorry sir," she said and grabbed the glass slate tablet to tap on the screen. A hologram displayed on the glass slate and she uploaded her findings. "But I working in the server room to ensure there had to be any bugs or patches to fix and this caught my eye that you needed to see." She handed him the tablet and replayed the video she recorded from the camera.

Curious, Cyrus grabbed his glasses to rest them on his nose and watched the video. He noticed the building's energy levels were high even after dark with everyone gone home. His brown eyes widen to the sight of two individuals in hospital gowns and both wore NeuroGear helmets. He shook his head to think he wasn't believing it and was more sleep deprieved, but the camera feed was still the same. "P.I.X.A.L, what camera is this from exactly?" he wondered as he turned to his assistant.

"I believe that is floor B6, sir." the android replied. "But that is an empty level until the contract for the enviromental science department has been approved. But I can't compute what two Ninjago Online players are doing out of the hospital and are actually moving. I thought the NeuroGear is suppose to cut off electricity from the brain and spinal cord to prevent players from moving."

"It's suppose to. Neuro worked on the device for months and this doesn't make sense. It's too late to call him, we'll have to wait until morning and show this to him."

"If you want, sir, I can go down to B6 to see the commotion and escort them back to the hospital."

"Please do, P.I.X.A.L." The man grabbed the wheels of his chair and pulled himself away from his desk and made his way to the room next to his office. "I'm going to retire for the night, even though I haven't slept well these past few months. But please do return and notify me that you had returned the players to the hospital." He watched the android nod and head for the elevator while he entered his suite to retire for the night.

* * *

The elevator slowly descended as the android leaned against the glass compartment. She gazed at the city skylights to smile as it marveled her. The Borg building may look empty for the night, but there was still activity happening outside of the building. She wanted to see what the city was like, but being an android she wondered if the citizens accepted her than what she is like. Even the times when she used to talk to Zane alone when he was stored away, he too wished he could see what the life in Ninjago is like. She had to wonder if she'll see him again and they could have a day together in Ninjago. The android shook her head to return her attention to the wandering players in the building as the city disappeared from her window and descended below ground and the doors slid open.

Darkness surrounded her as the lights were down without power as she glanced around. She pulled out the glass tablet to grant access into the light to try and turn them on, but the lights flickered to remain dark. She sighed as the energy levels from the floor were interferring them someway and illuminating her eyes to brighten the area as flashlights and began her search. The corridors were bare and empty as she moved her way through the vacant level and she could feel the presence of energy being used to quietly follow toward the source. And when she turned the corner, she stopped as she spotted the two hospital patients that were wandering around.

"Excuse me," she said to them. "You're trespassing on an abandon floor and must be escorted back to the hospital, players." They remained quiet and didn't move. She raised a brow as they didn't respond and had to wonder how they're still wearing their NeuroGears when they're not plugged into an ethernet outlet. Were they even playing the game? Curiously, she went up to the players to tap on the NeuroGear to see if they would respond if they were awake. But none of the two reacted to her presence and scanned them to see through their headpieces. She gasped as their eyes were closed and quickly scanned them to noticed their brainwaves were off the charts. "What's going on here?"

She lifted her head as the players' heads snapped upward and held an arm out to her. The android gasped to slowly back up as they advanced toward her and turned to run. Which caused her to drop her tablet in the process to shatter on impact. P.I.X.A.L glanced over her shoulder to see they were running methodically after her and quickly turned the corner and saw the elevator ahead of her to sprint harder. Once she reached it, she pressed the call button frantically to glance from the corner of her eye to watch the players were closing in on her and the doors slid open. She yelped as the burly player grabbed her arm to try and squirm from his iron grip and pushed him away to quickly step into the elevator before the doors closed and ascended to the top floor.

A breath of relief escaped from the android and she slid down against the glass wall to hug her knees. She didn't know what she just witnessed from those players that chased after her, but something felt off to her. Their NeuroGears weren't connect to an ethernet outlet and yet they look like they were still in the game even when the headpiece had an internal battery. But when scanning them, she noticed their brainwaves weren't neutral from the NeuroGear, they were high and off the charts. As if they were still in the game, but something in their NeuroGear was making them spike up. She had to inform Cyrus about this, but it'll have to be the next morning.

P.I.X.A.L had to admit, this was a strange thing happening.

* * *

Loud footfalls echoed in the stone corridors as a green clad player in ghastly armor made his way through the large complex. Behind him were three other players as they trailed behind him. They could see a bright light illuminated at the end of the corridor with loud players commuting at the end. A smirk of accomplishment crept on his face as he reached the end to stand on a balcony that overlooked the center of the Kyprtarium Prison with thousands of players gathered around. Some interacted with one another while others fought against others.

Morro glanced down at the players to keep his smirk remained on his face and glanced over his shoulder to watch another player drag Lloyd by his arms. The teen looked defeated as he let the player drag and dropped him to his knees and fell onto his chest as his arms couldn't catch him. A groan of pain escaped from his lips as he tried to get to his feet, but the player grabbed him by his shoulder to pull him to his feet. His emerald eyes glanced at Morro and hung his head as he didn't want to look at him.

The man smirked and turned to the crowd of players to silence them so he can address them. The center area grew silent and turned to Morro at the balcony. "The time of our imprisonment of this game is nearing to an end." he exclaimed. "We have been trapped in Ninjago Online for days, weeks, months. Wishing we can leave this game to see our families and friends and not fall victim to the Overlord to become his army. But now we have the key to escape this damn game once and for all. We have the one who caused us to become trapped in this game."

He grabbed Lloyd by his arm to throw him against the balcony railing to hear him gasp after slamming against the stone edge. The blonde teen cough and yelped as he felt his hair being grabbed to have his head lifted to see the crowd below him. "This is Lloyd Garmadon." he continued. "His family is well known in IRL and he and his sibling and cousin are the heirs to the Ninjago City Tower. But his grandfather and mine once worked together to form the company until he tossed him onto the streets and the Garmadon's and Wu's grew famously." His scowled him as Lloyd hung his head away from his glare. "But now that he's here, he is the key to help us get out of this. It must be obvious that Cyrus Borg and his family are working together to help everyone get out of the game, a perfect exchange then. If the Garmadon's want their brat back, he must be a good exchange to the Overlord."

The crowd gave out hushed comments of confusion to stare at him puzzled. But Morro held up a hand to keep them quiet. "What I'm saying is that we sacrifice him to the Overlord in exchange for our freedom!" he shouted. "If the Garmadons want him back, they would do anything to have him back into their welcoming arms. Once they found out I sacrificed him to the virus, they would do anything for me to bring him back and I will give him back only if they relinquish for my grandfather. The Overlord can deal with the other players, this will be our only chance to escape this game once and for all. Who's with me!?"

The crowd was silent to the plan of his and slowly began to clap and cheer to his plan. The thundering applause soon grew louder to have Morro smirk to the crowd. This was their chance to leave the game and let other players remain in the game. They would have their freedom and left the others to the Overlord. Lloyd, however, felt his stomach doing sommersaults to feel nervous and afraid of Morro; using him as a sacrifice in exchange for freedom. Morro's ultimate plan for revenge of his grandfather.

The raven haired man turned to the player in the shadows and tossed the teen aside. "Take him back to his cell and rebind him." he demanded. "By light of dawn, we'll have him ready to be killed by the Overlord himself. I'll make contact with him tonight."

"As you wish, Morro." a feminine player said and bowed in the shadows and grabbed Lloyd's arm. Instincts kicked into Lloyd and started to struggle against the player, but she had a tight grip on his arm to remain him in her grasp. Lloyd's heart was racing as he disappeared with the player and heard the roaring crowd in the distance.

* * *

The wind softly howled in his ears as he carefully climbed a mesa with his comrades climbing along side him. Nightfall had fallen, but they weren't concerned with the Dark Creatures as they had trekked through the Sea of Sands. They were close to their objective, they could feel it. Traveling day and night to reach Lloyd that was held captive in the prison of the game, unknown to the fate of what is happening to their friend. Kai was willingly ready to rescue the teen as he did have them team up in the begining, but to also protect him from Morro and his comrades.

The samurai finally reached the top of the mesa and turned to help the others. Their arms ached for the high climb and all turned to the ledge as they saw the bright light in the distance. They saw the octagonal stone structure inner and outer walls with guard towers posted along the walls. A tall tower stood in the center with a center building below it. Tapestries hung on the walls as the mark of a guild territory and flags hung onto ropes that stretched from the prison to the mesas that surrounded it. Torches and fire pits lit the structure to allow the four players to observe their surroundings as they studied it. Somewhere below them was their friend hidden inside and they intended to find him to repay him for his help forming them as a team.

"There's no going back now." said Kai, tighting his katana around his waist. "Somewhere is Lloyd, suffering under Morro's wrath because of bad blood with old rivalry in IRL. I for one want to get him out of there because he's the one who formed us together as a team. Time to repay him for that." He saw his friends smirk with a nod to nod along with them and removed his red headband. He drew in a deep breath to jump off the ledge and loop his headband around one of the ropes that connected to the prison and zipline to the outer wall. Jay and Cole used the shafts of their weapons while Zane used his cloak to help reach down safely. Once the spiky haired burnet retied the headband back around his head, he stared at a hatch on the roof and pulled it open to see darkness. "Here goes nothing." he muttered and jumped into the darkness with the others following.


	22. Rescuing

**Chapter 22: Rescuing**

The air became cold and stale as they trekked through the stone structure. Darkness surrounded them, torches lighting their path every few feet as they hung along the grey walls. Silence was all they heard except for their footfalls and quiet breathing as they turned their heads in search of their friend. But behind them, they could hear the thundering voices of other players as they were gathered in the center room of the complex. Jay felt a little sick to his stomach to the loud chanting they were making.

"OVERLORD! OVERLORD!"

The long corridors grew on and twist many paths. Sometimes they even made a circle back to where they were once before. The complex was a labyrinth and it would take them forever to find their kidnapped friend. It was almost long and difficult as a dungeon quest to be lost. But they were determined to find their friend to get him back alive.

Kai glanced around the corner from the fork in the road and motioned everyone else to follow him as the area was cleared. His hunting senses were applied to hear anything far or close to them; though they haven't encountered with anyone else. He smiled to himself for this perk he obtained to avoid dangerous paths. But it quickly vanished to the loud, metal footfalls from behind him. "Geez, Cole," he hissed quietly to turn around. "Can you lose the armor? This is a stealth mission and your heavy armor and feet are going to give away our position if you don't keep it quiet."

"Okay, okay, relax," the raven haired teen replied, grumbling to himself. He waved his hand down to open the display menu to tap on the screen for a few moments. The heavy chest armor, pants and boots vanished into his inventory to be donned in lighter armor around his chest and shoulders and black pants and leather boots. "Happy now? I don't like having my armor off after you watched my guild get slaughtered by those snakes in the beginning."

"I came a second too late to help you." Kai reminded. "If I did came on time, I would've helped you. But you can't keep blaming us for your loss." Both glared at each other to have their chests against each other.

Before any fight could happen, Zane quickly stood between the two to push them back from each other. A sigh came from him as he quick enough to stop the fight. "We can't argue at a time like this, okay?" he said. "Remember, our main priority is to find Lloyd and get him away from this place before who knows what happens to him. After all, he has brought us together and it's time to return a favor." He heard both teens sighed to agree with him to have Jay smile a bit with Zane. "Now then, to find our friend is to find his cell. But the question is where though?"

"Remember, Zane," Jay said. "This place is actually the prison of the game, that got overrun by all the criminals of the game. There are way more cells than you think, Lloyd would be in any of them, probably even the one right behind me."

The knight nodded. "Jay's right." Cole agreed. "This place is a maze and any cell would have him locked up. And this place is crawling with all kinds of scumbags that would be diabolical to the game. One crossed path with any one of them, we're in trouble to be like Lloyd or killed on sight."

His words were caught in his throat to think. His teammates were right. They were in enemy territory. "I agree as well," the A.I. nodded. "But think logically on this. Morro would have him locked up somewhere, yes, but he has all other players gathered around in the center complex to address a meeting, the chances of crossing any paths are minimum."

"But I'm sure they would have a guard outside his cell still since Morro has him as a valuable prize." Kai added. He lead the way again to have the others following behind him. They stopped at the next corner to peer around and smirked. "Bingo."

Around the corner, the four teens could spot a single door at the end of the corridor with a player standing guard outside of it. Through their eyes, they could see he was low leveled with a standard sword in his scabbard. But they weren't sure of his abilities or skills that could catch them off guard. "Allow me," Zane insisted to pull the hood of his cloak over his blonde hair and stepped out. The others stayed, hands by their weapons in case their friend needed back up.

His breaths were calm as he walked to study the player. High graded armor for a low level player, simple sword in hand, bared an eye patch with a shaved head that made his facial structure resemble a skull. The player's ears perked up to the sound of approaching footsteps to see someone in a white cloak step out of the shadows to draw out his sword, giving him warning to back away from the premises. Zane was amused. "I'm not here to kill you." he said softly. Before the player could object, Zane thrust two of his fingers to his neck to paralyze the player and watched him collapse, unconscious.

He drew a deep breath to stare at the fallen player. He watched the others regroup with him. "Nice work, Zane." Jay commended as Kai grabbed the keys from the player's belt. Cole grabbed the player and dragged him to an unoccupied cell to hide him. "Let's hope this is it then."

Kai nodded and inserted the key in and unlocked it. He cautiously pushed the door open, scanning around for any traps to alert their presence. But none were found. They gasped as they found Lloyd hanging by the shackles from the ceiling, head hung in exhaustion. They quickly rushed over to him and Zane scanned him to see his HP bar was lowered, but not dangerous. "He's alive still." he said, thankfully. "Morro must've been torturing him and reviving repeatedly. Four days straight, I suppose."

Kai watched in awe and horror to see the teen like this. His golden blonde hair was a mess and through his closed eyes, he could see the tears stained on his cheeks. It ached his heart to see the pain inflicted on him for revenge outside the game. Ronin wasn't kidding of Morro being sadistic. "I'll kill Morro for this." he mumbled to himself and gently moved Zane aside to shake Lloyd's shoulders. "Hey, Kid, wake up. It's us."

They waited for a response from the tortured teen to have Kai shake him again to finally hear a groan escape from his lips. His eyes carefully fluttered open to cringe to the torch light outside his cell and slowly opened them wider to reveal his emerald green eyes. A small smile grew on his face. His virtual heart leaped with joy. "Y-You came for me." he said, tiredly.

They all smiled with joy to see his smile, relieved he was still alive. "Of course we did, Squirt." said Cole. "We weren't going to let them beat you to a pulp. And we'd never gave up on you like you do for us. Now hold still." He reached up to grab onto a shackle used his high level strength to snap the cuff in half to begin working on the other.

But unaware of the five, yellow eyes glared down at them to acrobatically and swiftly climb down the many chains that hung around without making a sound to stop and study them.

The final cuff was snapped from Lloyd's ankle to have Kai catch him and carefully rest him down on the dusty floor. A whimper came from the blonde teen to the movement. "Easy now," he said to rest him against the wall. "You're a lot heavier than I thought." He smiled to see him struggle out a laugh and reached into his leather pouch to pull out a red vial and rest it against his lips. "Now drink this, this won't only revive your health, but your strength as well. Something I use when in dungeons." He watched him nodded and gingerly took sips of it to watch his HP bar slowly recovering.

"Okay, step one, finding Lloyd, is complete." Jay said. "But now step two is to find a way out of this place. We can't go back the way we came otherwise that'll have us spotted from Morro's meeting. There's got to be another way around."

Taking a deep breath, Lloyd calmed himself down and carefully moved the nearly empty vial from his mouth. He felt his strength recovering, way different than what Morro gave him to revive him for torturing. "I-I know of a secret path we can use to escape." he spoke up. "This is the prison of the game, but in the warden's office would be a secret path we can use to escape."

The raven haired teen studied him to nod. He too had heard something of that. But that was when the prison acted as a prison and become overrun by criminals. "Well looks like we'll have to take that then." Cole insisted.

"But think twice though," Zane rebutted. "This is Morro's fortress, which means the warden's office would be his safe house. I suggest we trace our steps back where we came from and find a different path so we don't cross Morro or any of his allies."

"No don't, get to the warden's office." Lloyd cried out. "He never goes there alot since he's been torturing me and if we act now, we get leave before this meeting is over. He's going to try and contact the Overlord tonight."

They raised a brow to become puzzled. Morro was challenging the Overlord Virus for everyone's freedom. But they wondered why he kidnapped Lloyd in the beginning. "Wait, what?" Jay pondered. "Why would he want to do that?"

"Because he's going to use me as a sacrifice." Lloyd explained. "He's going to use me as leverage to have him and everyone in this prison free from the game. Then he's going to make my family lose their positions in their company for the revenge of his grandfather in exchange to have me free from the game." He threw a coughing fit to slump against the wall. He took a deep breath. "If we leave now, we can reach the warden's office in the tower before he adjorns the meeting. Most likely he'll contact the Overlord outside and come back to torture and weaken me."

The four had to glance at each other to the teen in green to sigh. If he was right, he must be then. "Alright, we'll take your word for it." Kai said and pulled him to his feet and looped his arm around his neck. "Before you complain, your health may be back but your strength will take a bit longer. Keep drinking the vial till it's empty." He saw him nod and continued to drink and lead the way. He watched Jay grab Lloyd's golden sword. But he stopped as his hunting senses perked. "Zane?"

"I sensed it too." the A.I. acknowledged.

The cell was filled with a charging cry to stun the five of them and watched a quick figure run through to Cole. It jumped to loop its legs around his neck to twist his body and threw him at Zane across the room to crouch.

The remaining three watched how quick the figure was to see it was a female player with short green hair and yellow eyes with...snake skin armor. Jay drew out his spear to twirl it around and charged at her while she ran to him. She swung her hand with sharp nails to his chest, but the auburn was quick to wrap his weapon around her arms to detain them behind her back. But she quickly threw her heel to his face to stun him and climbed on to him to wrap her legs around his throat to choke him. Jay struggled to remove the assailant off of him until he elbowed her unprotected side to dislodge her but she kept climbing around his body until he felt something pierce his neck. "Ah! She bit me!" he yelled to collapse as she flipped back to hiss like a snake. The five were stunned to see a forked tongue when she hissed.

"Jay, are you alright!?" Lloyd called out. His muscles tightened as this was the player that had dragged him to the meeting before. He thought she left his cell, but she somehow snuck back in without him knowing.

"She just bit me." Jay reminded them. "I guess her eyes are bigger than her stomach and she could bite what she can't chew." He laughed a bit to groan. "Ow… I feel so sick…" He glanced at his HP bar to see his health was still the same, but a new icon appeared next to it to gasp. It was a paralysis icon. "She's a poison expert! Make sure she doesn't bite you or you'll be like me."

With the added information now given to them, the remaining four were now cautious. Kai gently placed Lloyd against the wall. "Stay here," the samurai said. "We'll take care of her." He stood guard of him with Cole and Zane next to him to draw out his katana. They drew their weapons out. "Stand down, we don't want to fight with you."

"Mmm where would the fun be?" the girl said, mockingly. She made her way to the paralyzed auburn to inspect his body to chuckle lightly to his state. Her poison was going to keep him incapacitated for a long time. "My poison is high level and will keep him down for some time and fun. You shall join him as well. Welcome to Toxikita's lair."

* * *

The cool desert air washed over his face as he stood on top of a mesa from his climb. His deep green eyes stared at the moon to remove his hood from getting sand into his face and fixed his long locks of raven hair. His gaze turned to a glare. "Overlord!" he shouted to the sky. "I have come for you!"

He waited patiently to the quietness until he heard thunder rumbling. The dark starry sky slowly faded with the moon turning blood red as a formation of purple clouds brewed with lightning scattering across the clouds. Morro felt tensed to his presence as if the first day when the virus took control of the game, but he stood tall as he heard the Overlord's cracky laugh in the clouds and saw its triangular eyes form in the clouds. "Who challenges me to fight to the death?" the Overlord called out to stare at Morro. "A lone player. How miserable of you."

"I didn't come to fight you." Morro said to hear the Overlord grumble and move away from him. "No. I come to bargain with you." The virus stopped to peer at the man, interested. "I have a hacker in this prison," he lied. "who can reach into the game's servers and will do anything to freeze you or destroy you with a simple touch of the button. I can give him to you, but in exchange for freedom of this game. But not to me, but to all the criminals in this prison. You can still have the other players to your army. We want our freedom and you can make your hacker the general to your army."

The virus studied him with its large eyes to minimize its size until it was an orb and circled the man. A player that could hack into the game and destroy him with a touch of a button and free his prisoners. Something he couldn't allow to happen with his army growing strong. "And what's in it for me?" he demanded, the orb brightening as it spoke. "This hacker you speak sounds off. I would've noticed it months ago."

Morro smirked. He had taken the bait. "This hacker will help you obliterate your enemies with a swipe of your hand." he said. "And outside the game, once I'm free, I can help you leave the game."

Intrigued, the virus stared at the man as it kept circling him. He was interest of the hacker and able to get rid of his foes with ease. An unstoppable force. "Show me." he demanded. Morro's smirk remained as he sealed the deal.


	23. Toxic Encounters

**Chapter 23: Toxic Encounters**

They stood guard, weapons drawn out and held them tightly. Tension was in the air as they glared at the new player in front of them. Across the large cell was a female player with short, bright green hair, yellow eyes and adorned in snake skin armor with bright green etchings on the exposed skin of her body. But next to her was Jay paralyzed on the dusty floor after being bitten from her poison on her fangs. They felt worried on how to fight against her while avoiding to be bitten by her and end up like Jay.

Lloyd felt worried for his friends encountering her. Seeing Jay in this state, Toxikita had an advantage to capture his friends and report it to Morro. Soon, they would all be captured because of him. Morro was right, he has brought nothing but trouble to his friends. "Guys?" he said.

The samurai turned to the blonde haired teen to hush him. Lloyd was taken back to his slight tone. "Relax, Kid." he said to him. "We'll take care of this." He turned back to the green haired girl. "We're not saying it again. Stand down and let us go. We don't want a quarrel with you. In this area, you can be killed than safe zones. It's three to one."

The girl studied to three player to stand over Jay and messed with his auburn hair. The teen struggled to move through his paralysis as she played with his hair and couldn't do anything about it. "Mmm...it wouldn't seem fun though to not fight." she said, playfully. "But if you don't want to fight, then at least let me poison you all. Morro would like it to see the escape attempt had failed and he has new people to torture."

"No way that's happening." Cole hissed. "Not after what you did to our friend." He swung his scythe around his hands to get into a stance. His crescent blade charged a bright yellow as he channeled energy into the weapon and charged toward the poison master. His amber eyes concentrated on the girl and swung his scythe at her. But Toxikita simply arched her back to avoid the blade to plant her hands on the floor and kicked up. He felt her legs wrap around his neck again and felt his body being swung around to fly off to the side. "Damn it."

The girl simply laughed as she crouched again. She could see the worriedness in their eyes after she tossed the knight aside again. "If you want to play now," she said to draw out a dagger. "Then we can play. In the end, I always catch my prey." She played with her weapon around in her fingers as she studied each player. A katana, a scythe, and shurikens, a player that was paralyzed to her poison, and Lloyd was at a weaken state. She smirked, easy targets to herself.

Lloyd watched in worry to her smirk. Toxikita was quick, she was able to bite Jay to paralyze him and strong to fling Cole to the side. His friends had faced against Chamille, Karloff, and Turner, but Toxikita was new and they didn't know how she fights with a dagger. Her fangs laced with the paralysis poison was more dangerous than her weapon of choice. His emerald eyes traced around for his sword and found it tossed to the far side after Jay dropped it and looked at his HP bar, still slowly reviving and felt some of his strength returned. But he still felt fatigue.

It was quiet in the darkened cell. Their muscles tensed up as they heard Toxikita laugh and hissed with her forked tongue and watched carefully. The green haired player started to sway her body with the green etchings glowing in the dark cell to have them follow her movement and smirked as they were slowly becoming hypnotized to hiss again like a snake. Lloyd watched her movement to feel dazed to her dancing, but he quickly shook his head to break free from the trance. "Guys, don't fall for it!" he shouted. "She's trying to trick-" His words were cut off as a hand was thrown over his mouth to have his eyes widen as Toxikita had gotten behind him quickly.

Kai shook his head from Lloyd's call and quickly spun on his heels to feel more tensed and worried to how fast the player gotten past them. He quickly checked his neck in case she bit him, but he didn't feel anything and nothing in his HP bar appeared as paralyzed. Toxikita simply chuckled to rest her dagger against Lloyd's throat. "Clever boy," she said. "You already knew one of my key features, hypnosis. I won't kill you, I'll leave it to Morro. It's them I'll kill." She removed her dagger from his throat to hiss again and charged with a cry.

Still dazed from her hypnosis, the samurai carefully watched the girl move quickly in the darkness and kept an eye on her eyes than the green etchings in her skin. Her yellow eyes glowed brightly against the darkness. He realized it, another feature about her. Her eyes glowed in the darkness to see against the dark. The darkness was her ally and he glanced over his shoulder to see the torches outside as an idea. "Hold her off for me!" he shouted to stop her dagger. Their eyes glared at each other and Kai pushed her away to dodge her from biting him and quickly ran out of the cell.

"Where are you going!?" Cole shouted to charge at her and swung his weapon to her. She parried his blade to stun him for a second and felt a kick against his abdomen to slump a bit to a knee. He wished he had his suit of armor on, she kicked him where the armor couldn't protect him. It protected his chest and shoulders like Jay's, just not his abdomenal area. "Seriously, Kai!?"

"Perhaps he has a plan." Zane wondered and threw his shurikens to the girl and charged for her. The twin metal weapons were deflected from her dagger and the A.I ran along the wall to grab his weapons before they reached the ground. He leaped off to lunge for her to have his shurikens channel a white aura and swung at her. Being a quick player, Toxikita blocked the weapons and threw her knee to his chest to stun him and pushed him back. The A.I stumbled back and picked himself back up. "If Kai does have a plan, it's best to buy him time."

"Easier for you to say," Cole retorted and dodged the girl's dagger and sharp metal claws on her fingers. His eyes widen as he felt Toxikita climb onto him and struggled to throw her off and quickly grabbed her by the throat before she could bite him. "It's us two, Jay is out of commission and Lloyd is still recovering. It's hard enough to deal with her since she is a poison expert." He felt a solid punch hit him in the face, but it didn't faze him and plucked the girl off of him. "That's enough from you." He tossed her aside to watch her acrobatically land on her feet. "Kai!? Where are you!?"

A trail of light followed someone out in the hall and entered the cell. Torch lights surrounded the samurai as he carried them in his arms with one attached to his scabbarb. The darkness in the faded to the brightness of the torches and all could see Toxikita clearly through the darkness, causing her to wince and cover her eyes. Kai smirked, he was right. Toxikita was using the darkness as her ally with an ability to enchance her night vision. "Knew it!" he said and tossed the torches aside to different areas of the cell. The cell became brighter. "She was using the darkness to her advantage to dim our vision with her body marks. But now-"

"We can see where she's at!" Cole acknowledged. "Nice thinking."

The blurred vision finally faded from her yellow eyes to turn off her ability to reveal bright green eyes. She scowled to the torch lights around the cell to kick sand at the nearest one to try and diminish the flame, but it didn't go out. Toxikita hissed. "You may have figured me out," she said to grip her dagger tightly. "But I'll still kill you than leave your fate to Morro." She glared at the players to charge for them and quickly snatched sand from the floor to throw it at their faces to have them stunned.

Lloyd watched in horror to his stunned friends and glanced back at his sword. He watched as the girl was fighting her friends hard to have wounds appearing on their bodies with losing little of their HP. He was scared to see green wounds than red gashes. Even they would land blows onto her, but she was quick to attack them. Regaining the strength he could muster, Lloyd quietly got to his hands and dragged himself to make his way to Jay. "You doing good?" he asked, quietly.

"Not really." the auburn replied, spitting out any sand that got into his mouth. He hated how half of his face was on the ground and wanted to move. "Don't tell me what you're thinking of doing."

Lloyd nodded and grabbed his sword. "Sorry," he said and slowly gotten to his feet. "But I got to help them." He watched Toxikita tossed Kai aside into Cole and Zane and clutched his weapon tightly. "Toxikita!"

The girl turned to face Lloyd to smirk. She was surprised to see him on his feet, even after the torture Morro inflicted on him. She turned to see the three other players try to get on their feet, but they looked slow to move, even with the green wounds on their bodies. "Don't even bother moving," she said. "My blade is also coated with a mild paralysis poison, it's to keep you slow before I can make the final kill." The green haired player turned to back Lloyd. "As you, back to your shackles. No way you can fight me in your condition from Morro."

Lloyd glanced at his friends to see them struggling to move or pick themselves up. He was right about the green wounds. Toxikita was just poisonous to the touch. But anger burned in his body to grip his weapon tightly. He wasn't going to back down from her. His friends were close to helping him escape, he had to help them get out of this prison. "No, I'll fight my way out with them." he hissed and charged to have his blade glow a green aura. He spun to swing his blade toward her and she blocked it with her blade. But the power of the weapon caused the girl to lose her balance and flew across the cell.

The teen kept his glare focused on the girl to fall to one knee for his energy still being low. But he took a deep breath and pulled himself to his feet. The girl hissed as she jumped to her feet and brush the dust off her body. She grabbed her dagger from the floor to charge at him to swing her weapon at him to have it parried and felt a boot to her chest to stumble back. "Give up, brat!" she hissed. "No way you're going to make it out alive. Let me paralyze you and you won't be much a trouble to me and Morro. Then watch your friends die in front of you." She charged again at his tired state to jump onto him and began to struggle with him.

Jay watched as best he could in his paralyzed state to feel worried now. His friends were poisoned as well, not as much as he was currently, and Lloyd was the last one standing. He should've scowled at the teen to not fight her before matters gotten worse as they were right now. His hazel eyes were wide as he watched green gashes appear on Lloyd's body, more than what the others had, to start struggling on regaining motor control. His muscles locked up and he struggled harder to feel his arm move slowly. He smiled as the paralysis poison was starting to wear off and started regain more of his body control.

The blonde haired teen saw blur around him and felt fire on his body every time he felt the sharp side of a blade swipe him. He could see green etchings swarm around him as Toxikita climbed around him. He felt her legs wrap around his waist to stare into her green eyes and felt himself being tossed aside to pile with his friends. Lloyd felt tired to move, pain swam around in his body as he picked his head up to watch Toxikita grab him by his coat to flash her fangs. "I've had it with you." she growled. "This will make you stop once and for all."

Unaware to her, Jay groggily gotten to his feet and opened his menu. He pulled out a bow and his black box he used on Kai before. With creative hands, he slowly crafted both items together and held up the bow with a metal arrow. He struggled to pull the string back and took aim on the girl. Toxikita bared her fangs to Lloyd to lunge for his neck. Which caused the auburn to fire the arrow and struck her in the back to cause her to drop Lloyd and scream in pain as she felt electricity course through her body and collapsed. Jay took a deep breath to sigh in relief and carefully made his way to his friends to collapse next to them. "Thanks, Jay." Lloyd said.

"No problem." Jay replied. "We just need a breather now. I don't think she's going to wake up for awhile."

"Sounds logical." Zane agreed, opening his menu to see if he had any potions to revive them and remove the poison from their bodies.

* * *

A few minutes passed and the poison had finally wore off. Even Jay felt better to not have a paralysis icon on his HP bar. Lloyd was pulled up to his feet with Kai's help, but the samurai threw his arm around his neck. The teen wanted to protest, but he still felt weak even after drinking the potion he gave him. Instead, he kept quiet and sheathed his blade. He felt surprised Toxikita hasn't woken up with after Jay had shot her with the electrified arrow. But he didn't care as she was taken care of and began to walk along with Kai. Getting out of the cell was the first step, getting to the warden's office was next.

Kai smiled as the teen followed with him and kept a strong arm around his waist. He didn't want Lloyd to collapse on him when they could finally leave the prison. They had to reach the warden's office. If Lloyd was right, they could escape and get far from Morro as possible. "Zane, any idea where the office could be?" he wondered as they exited the cell. Cole locked the door behind them to contain Toxikita in case she woke up and couldn't escape. He tossed the key aside. "If Lloyd is right about an escape route, we need to know as soon as possible."

The A.I pondered as he opened his menu to study his map. Around them were nothing but prison cells and in the center of the complex was where most of the other players that lived in the prison as a hideout. But in the center of the complex was also the tower. He had to wondered if the tower was the warden's office. "Lloyd, if I'm correct, we need to make our way to the center tower to the office, right?" he asked to see the teen nod tiredly. "Then we'll make our way there." He led the way.

* * *

Quietness was all around a player as she walked down the corridors. Her black hair cascade down her back in a tangled mess and contrasted against her dark purple tunic. Black eyeshadow clouded around her eyes to make her look ghastly as its common for her guild. A small breath of bliss came from her to the quietness, the center was getting loud and rowdy to her and wanted silence. To hone in her skills for her guilds next hunt. Silence and stealth was their advantage, they were going to need it for hunt of a player named Jay for a bounty.

The player turned a corner to stop as something caught her eye. She watched an arm snake out of the window of a cell and metal fingers were inserted into the lock. The female player recognized the arm and clawed fingers to walk down the hall and reach the door. "Toxikita," the player wondered, her voice raspy. "What are you doing? You were suppose to report to Morro after you transferred the brat back to his cell."

The poison player drew her arm back to look at the Ghoul member with wide eyes. The Ghoul player looked into her eyes to see the panic in her green irises. "Bansha, let me out and you need to warn Morro!" she said, panickly. "The brat escaped and he has his friends helping him! We need to recapture him before he brings the Overlord here and we won't get our freedom from this game." She rattled the door to see it was strong to not release her. "DO IT!"

Her eyes were wide to the key of their freedom escaping for his own freedom. She nodded and glanced around and spotted a bronze key on the floor to quickly snatch it up and unlocked Toxikita from Lloyd's cell. "Start finding them," she said to throw her hood over her face. "I'll warn them." She saw Toxikita nod and ran off. She drew in a deep breath to let a loud, screeching shout to have it echo throughout the complex.

* * *

They stopped to cover their ears to the loud shout to feel a bit disoriented. They finally shook the feeling off and glanced around their surroundings. Being lost in the large complex, they knew by now someone would've found Toxikita in Lloyd's cell and not Lloyd himself. But instead of waiting, they started to run, knowing the inhabitors of the complex would be after them.

* * *

He stopped as he heard the loud shout reach the outside of the walls of the complex to feel his face drop with worry. The Overlord's orb shuddered to the shout and stood in front of the man. "What was that about?" he demanded to know.

He gazed at the walls of the complex to narrow his eyes to hiss as it was Bansha's shout. Her special ability to disorient players when on hunts. But it was also a warning call to alert other players of intruders. Morro knew what it meant. Lloyd was now running around in the prison lost, but it also meant he had help to escape. The four individuals had found him and were attempting to escape the complex. "The brat is escaping." he snarled. "That's what's happening."


	24. Escaping

**Chapter 24: Escaping**

The shout had reached around the large complex. Everyone in the center of the structure was silent to the shout, but they knew what it meant. Someone had infiltrated the complex and was attempting to escape. But they knew it meant their key to freedom had escaped and was running to his own freedom. In order to have their freedom, all grabbed their weapons and ran out of the center to begin finding Lloyd. Even Karloff, Turner, and Chamille grew worried to hunt for the teen, knowing his group had found him and were all escaping with him.

* * *

Their footfalls grew loud as they ran down the dark corridors in a hurry. Because of the shout they heard, they knew the complex warned of their presence and the escaping of Lloyd. Mere minutes now meant they had to reach the warden's office to find the alternate escape route. Even when encountering Morro's elite players, they were worried of what other players in the structure had special abilities with. And they intended to not stay for the most part if they wanted to reach for freedom.

Kai struggled to carry Lloyd as the teen struggled to move with the samurai. He wanted to stop and catch a breath with him, but with them being hunted now, it made them want to run harder. And the spiky haired teen didn't want to drop him as well for he was still unstable after Morro's torturing. "How much farther do we need to go?" he asked the A.I.

They stopped to catch a breath and the cloaked player opened his menu to view the map. He studied the structure carefully and glanced around his surroundings to pinpoint their location. A groan came from the teen to turn to the others. "This is a problem." he said. "We're on the fifth floor of the complex and the way to the tower is on the tenth floor. Most likely some players will block off the stairs and other exits in case we cross them to corner us."

"What do you want us to do now!?" Jay exclaimed. "We can't just stay here and beg them to release us. They'll kill us on the spot and take Lloyd away. There has to be a way." He heard something fly past his ear to shriek as an arrow struck onto a wooden door by him. He traced his eyes to the source to see a horde of players rushing to them.

Cole's eyes were wide to the brigade of players to draw out his scythe. He stood in front of his friends to spin his weapon in his hands. "One thing for sure is this we can do." he said to glow the crescent blade a black aura. "Run!" He swung the scythe to the wall to cause it to shake and pieces of stone broke off to hit against players with dust kicking up to blind them. The samurai nodded to the knight's idea to keep a tight hold on Lloyd and followed after Zane.

Fear began to cling to the teen as he struggled to run beside Kai and heard more players far behind them. He wanted to keep up with him, but his body was tired for the lack of sleep and energy to keep up with them. He had to wonder if they felt the same lack of energy to even reach the complex for him and now being chased by everyone who was here. Lloyd tripped on his footing to lose his grip on Kai and fell to the floor to glance over his shoulder to see the horde was almost near him. He struggled to his feet and yelped as he felt hands grab his shoulders to come face to a burly Ghoul member.

Kai quickly turned after he felt Lloyd was no longer by his side to see he was grabbed by a Ghoul to rush toward him. He quickly drew his katana out to swipe at the enemy to hear him cry out and released his grip on Lloyd. He quickly kicked the Ghoul in the chest to push him back to cause other players to trip over the body and quickly grabbed Lloyd to catch up with the others. "Don't leave my side, got it!?" he said to the teen to see him nod. "Good. Zane, where to now!?"

"We need to turn left soon and race across a bridge before more come." the A.I informed them. Once the five turned the corner, they stopped as their path was blocked to turn the other way to stop as that path was cut off. They glanced around the three way corridor as they huddled together with their weapons drawn out as they were pinned against the wall. Zane glanced around for any paths and was tempted to open the console to teleport them out, but he didn't want to risk their lives and expose his identity. "We're surrounded. I don't see a way out now."

Panic filled his body and he could see it filled their bodies as well. Cole didn't like any second of it. It reminded him being surrounded by the Fangpyres and lost his guild in the process. He glanced at the wall, then the surrounding players to have an idea to sheath his scythe. "There is a way now." he said to have his gloves glowing a bright orange. The others quickly stepped back. Cole shouted as he threw his fist against the wall to cause it to crack until a powerful force broke a gaping hole in the wall. It created a new path for them. "Now go!" He took the lead with the others behind them.

The five players raced down the corridors with the foes after them. Fear clung to them as they avoided players and ambushes from them. They even dodged the arrows being fired by the Ghouls. They finally reached the stairs to climb up to the tenth floor and saw a bright light at the end of the corridor. "There it is!" Jay shouted to have them run harder to reach the end. They glanced around to see they were in the center of the complex to see the meeting area where Morro had addressed the crowd from before and saw a set of double doors to rush to it. They heard the players behind them to slam the doors behind them and locked it.

The doors bucked to the barging of players to hear it creak and cause the five brace it with their bodies. It bucked again to hear it crack to feel afraid. Zane finally gave up on safety to open the console to type on the keyboards and glanced over his shoulder to see ice form on the door thickly. He closed the console as the others stepped away as the ice spread until it was a wall. "Zane, I thought you said you weren't going to use the console?" Kai wondered. "After all, you could risk your bianary body and everyone's safety from the Overlord."

"I had to do what was best to our safety." Zane retorted. "But we're almost at the office, just climb up the stairwell and we're out of here for good." He lead the way to feel relieved and calm as they climbed up the stairs to push open a set of doors and entered into the warden's office.

They glanced around the large office and living quarters to ponder where a secret route would be. It could be hidden behind a book case in the small library or even under the desk. Kai carefully led Lloyd to the lounge chair to set him down to hear him sigh softly to the comfort of the chair. He smiled to his sigh and joined the others in search for their escape route. Cole gazed at a bookshelf to toss all books aside to see if any were a secret lever to scoff as none were to grab a hold of it to remove it off the foundation to stare at a wall. Jay found himself in the kitchenette to glance around for any secret opening or hatch to come out empty handed. "Where could it be?" he wondered.

The spiky haired teen turned back to Lloyd to see he was starting to doze off to smile and gazed at the fireplace. He could feel the warmth of the fire from the hearth and gazed at the mantle. He marveled at the trinkets that were trophies to the previous warden before the raid or even to Morro. But something caught the samurai's eyes as he stared at the mantle. A brick looked loose and out of place to have him raise his notched brow and pressed it to hear a click.

He stepped back as the others gathered around him to watch the fireplace expand to a new opening with the hearth disappearing into the floor. They were stunned to the hidden room to gaze in and saw a large stone floor with ancient Ninjago markings circling around it. Lloyd was right, there was a secret way to leave the complex. "It's a teleport pad." said Jay. "It's a rare item that can let any player teleport to anywhere in the game. Nadakhan has one at his hideout and it's what I used to flee from his guild."

"And it's our way out now from Morro." Cole added to head toward it. But he stopped as a knife flew past his ear and struck into the fireplace. He turned to see Morro was behind him with a glare and his sword drawn out. Lloyd woke up from his small nap to feel scared at the sight of Morro.

The man removed his cloak to be in his armor and gripped his sword tightly. "Get away from that." he demanded. "I've had it with you four, doing everything to help a simple brat whose family has destroyed mine. No more. My grandfather will be avenged one way or another and I'll make sure you're out of the way before I deal with him!" His sword charged a dark green aura as he charged and swung at the four to knock them off their feet as they were unprepared. They collided into the library to feel dazed and slowly gotten to their feet. Morro turned to Lloyd as he was frozen to move and swung his sword at him to have it blocked by Kai's katana after the samurai threw it at his blade. "Stay out of it!"

"You're not getting any closer to him." Kai hissed. "We don't care if your sword can see our attacks ahead of time, you're not getting a single hair of his. We'll kill you if we have to." He charged at the man to watch as he glanced at his blade to dodge his swipe as he rolled for his sword. But he felt a sharp blow to his side to have him farther away from his weapon. He got back to his feet to perform the same tactic to only have the same outcome.

"Give up!" Morro shouted. "No use of this petty attempts. I'll always see where you're going and know how you going to attack."

"What about all of us at once!?" Cole shouted to have his scythe out as he charged with Jay and Zane flanking the man. Morro quickly glanced at his sword. The knight swiped his weapon at the man to have him dodge the crescent blade and felt a boot to his abdomen to fly back. Morro then dodge Jay's spear as he thrust it toward him to parry his spearhead to then use the hilt of his weapon against his head to stun him and punched him in the face to push him back. Zane ran toward the man's flank to throw his shurikens at him to have him deflect the twin metals to slid on the floor with his leg out to kick his legs. But Morro jumped to push the tip of his sword into the A.I's shoulder for leverage to vault over him.

They were all breathing heavily as they regrouped with Kai having his sword back and charged at him again. Lloyd watched in fear as his friends were facing a man who was filled with rage. All because of bad blood of their grandfathers. He watched as his friends were kicked aside and watched as their health points slowly drain from their bars to feel worried as Morro slowly advanced to them without a single point of health drained from him. He pondered what to do now, but he groggily started to get out of the chair while struggling in the process.

Morro glanced at the tired players as they struggled to get back on their feet. He watched the samurai get onto his knees to kick him sharply in the abdomen to have him gasp and fell back to the floor. "No need to get up." he said to raise his sword. "This is your final gaming hour."

"MORRO!" he heard someone shout to him. The man stopped to turn around to see Lloyd had gotten to his feet with his golden sword out. He chuckled lightly to his glare and knew he wasn't capable of fighting after torturing him. Lloyd kept his glare on the man as he gripped his sword tightly despite feeling fatigue from exhaustion and got into a stance. "It's not them you want to fight. It's me you want. You've been trying to kill me from the beginning, all for revenge of our families. Let's settle this once and for all. A fight to the death."

A small smirk formed on his face to chuckle lightly. A moment he's been waiting for and has an advantage to kill the teen for the Overlord. He can kill him, the entire complex can be free from the game. And he can kill his friends in the process. Kai and the others, however, were worried for Lloyd to the challenge. "Foolish boy," he laughed. "That's what you've always been, Lloyd Garmadon." He glanced at his blade to see the teen's movements. "But foolish enough to fight me as well. I'll shall kill you and your friends will watch and then kill them as well. The Overlord will love your sacrifice."

Lloyd didn't respond to study the man. His Sword of Sanctuary gave him an advantage to see his movement ahead of him. He charged at Morro with his sword glowing a teal aura as he thrust his sword toward the man's chest in a rapid speed to have each attack blocked from his foe's sword. After the final attack, he saw the golden blade of Morro's aimed high to duck the blade, but failed to see his leg reaching for him to take the blow and flew back. He grunted as he made contact to the rough floor to roll and stopped after his back had hit the chair to groggily get back on his feet and charged again.

He watched the man glance at his sword again as he saw his movement again and quickly changed his tactic to run along the wall and leaped off to aim for the man's unprotected side. But Morro quickly spun on his heels to cross his sword with Lloyd's to push him back and quickly swiped his sword across his chest to have the teen cry out in pain as he landed back to the pile of his friends. "Give up, brat." Morro snarled. "There's nothing you can do to defeat me. I see your movements, I see how you think. There is nothing to get out of this alive."

He felt exhaustion creep up onto him as he struggled to lift his head. Half of his HP bar was gone, slowly reviving. Not an ounce of Morro's health was drained from him. But his emerald eyes glanced at Morro's sword to ponder. He could see an image of himself jumping to his feet and charging at Morro with his sword held high, just as how he thought to attack the man again. And it only showed him the attack for a couple seconds. His eyes widen as an idea came to him, Morro only looked at the sword for a second to see his opponents and quickly got into position to protect himself.

Fighting the exhaustion, Lloyd got back to his feet, using his sword as support. His glare returned as he gripped his weapon tightly and got into a stance. "No. I will fight for my freedom and you will not win." he said. "My friends have gotten me this far from escaping and we will all leave together and fight the Overlord as one to free everyone from this game." He charged his sword a bright golden aura to run toward the man.

A sigh came from the man to quickly glance at his sword to have his sword glow a dark green aura to cross his blade with his. A powerful force connected with the two as they pushed against each other. Lloyd smirked as he was right about Morro's sword to snake his arm around Morro's arms and move his sword away. With a quick swipe, the teen pulled his sword upward to cut both of Morro's wrists off his arms. The man gasped as he fell to his knees and saw a missing limb icon appear on his bar. Lloyd caught the Sword of Sanctuary and crossed both blades at Morro's neck.

Lloyd had won.

"Good. Good." a raspy voice said. Lloyd glanced around to the voice to feel stiff, he and his friends recognized the voice. A reddish orb appeared in front of the teen as he circled around him. "An excellent fighter and no signs of a hacker inside you. Now kill him, kill him now." Lloyd glanced at the man to see the fear in his eyes as he gazed at his missing hands that laid on the floor near him. He never killed another player before and he didn't want to send another player to the Overlord's army. "Do it!"

"Overlord, he's the one that can destroy you!" Morro exclaimed out of fear. "He's in your grasp, I've brought him to you. Free me and everyone in this complex from the game and I can help you outside of the game. I can give you a body and you can have this game world and Ninjago as well."

The orb turned to the fallen man to give out a throaty cackle as he circled him. Morro's eyes were widen with fear. "What's makes you think I haven't begun it already?" the virus said. "My intentions are what you already claimed. Every fallen player is not only part of my army in the game, but also outside of this digital world." Lloyd's eyes were wide in awe to what he was claiming. The Overlord was using fallen players to his advantage outside of the game. Even Zane quickly opened his menu to start recording the virus' plan.

"Your NeuroGears allowed me to intercept your brainwaves, enabling me to rewire everything to have you under my control. I don't need a body when I'm having one being made and I'll soon rule this world and also take control of the real Ninjago. Not only you have given me a complex of players, I can use them as more of my army while I'm here." He morphed from his orb to take form of a small cloud with its triangular eyes. "What do you say, General?" Morro's eyes remained frozen to scream as a purple bolt struck him.

Lloyd stepped back to shield his eyes with the wind howling around him. The wooden roof broke to have wooden pieces flying around as the Overlord destroyed it to enlarge over the complex and have a storm brew. The teen quickly got to his friends to help them to their feet to start rushing to the teleport pad, but he stopped as Morro screamed more. He watched his missing hands lift from the floor and attached themselves to his sides and not his arms to gasp as he watched new arms sprout from his sides until he had four arms. The man screamed more as his face changed with long fangs forming and his skin slowly became pale as white with heavy red decorative samurai armor adorn itself to his body. A red straw hat and face mask lowered onto his head as he grew larger and taller than Lloyd. The fallen player breathed heavily to his transformation to turn to Lloyd and flashed his bright green eyes. "Kill players!" he said with a deep voice to cross his four arms and drew out his four swords.

Lloyd felt frozen to move to the towering general that was Morro to dodge out of the way as he swung his swords at him. But he failed to move from one of the swords to feel the butterfly sword slash his arm and quickly hid under the desk. "Lloyd, come on!" he heard Jay shout. The blonde haired teen glanced out to see his friends were at the pad, waving at him to hurry. The wind howled more as the Overlord laughed as he fired bolts of lightning to any players he could spot as he destroyed the prison. Lloyd moved away as Morro broke the desk with his large hands and ran from him to reach the teleporter. He yelped as he felt the man grab his leg and being drugged from the hidden room until his friends grabbed his arms to pull him away from the man. "Do it, Kai!" Lloyd shouted and kicked Morro in the face to release grip on him.

"Teleport!" the spiky haired teen commanded to have the man reaching for them again. A bright blue aura surrounded the five players to have them huddled closer. They glanced at the man's green eyes before they disappeared from its sight. In a second, they felt rough ground to collapse. Exhaustion clouded their eyes to find themselves in a dark forest, not caring for any of the Dark Creatures coming for they could see the rays of sunlight breaking the horizon. But it didn't matter to them as they collapsed into heavy sleep.


	25. More Stranger Things

**Chapter 25: More Stranger Things**

"Medical officials are still baffled to the recent disappearences to many of Ninjago Online players." Gayle Gossip reported. "Last week, over twenty patients from the Ninjago City General Hospital have disappeared from their rooms. Along with other disappearences in Downtown Ninjago General Hospital, Ninjago Memorial, and even other hospitals throughout Ninjago. Security footage has shown no proof of their disappearence and it's highly unlikely for them to disappear without a trace."

"Families and friends are in grief to the disappearence of the players trapped in Ninjago Online by a virus that was suppose to be a boss created by Cyrus Borg and Neuro Hisoko. If anyone has seen anyone that is supposedly roaming around in Ninjago in hospital gowns and their NeuroGear helmet, notify police so they can return to the hospital for their proper care until they're freed from the Overlord virus. The families and friends of the trapped players would gradually appreciate it. More to come tonight. I'm Gayle Gossip on scene."

The screen went silent after Cyrus held the remote to silent the large computer monitor on the wall to sigh. First day of his game released and everyone is trapped in the game. Now players were disappearing from their hospital room without a trace. This didn't sound natural and it was going to ruin the man. Neuro glanced at his boss to sigh with him as he focused his attention to the city from the large window. He scratched the stubble of hair on his chin to ponder now. It sounded odd, just something to consider a stranger thing. Like what P.I.X.A.L had told them the other morning.

The man turned away from the window to see his sulking boss and turned to the android as she worked on a new tablet since she told them she lost it from her chase. He could tell she looked tensed after what she told them. "So you claim to have seen some of the missing patients?" he wondered.

The android nodded. "Respectifully speaking, yes." she said to tap on the glass tablet. The large monitor replayed the events she seen from her eyes to show the two how the patients looked lifeless. Neuro was confused as he watched it to ponder how they were moving even with his creation still attached to them. "As you can see, they're moving. Not connected to any ethernet outlet, but are they still connected to the game. Here I'm thinking though, the NeuroGear should've stopped any brainwave activity to prevent players from moving and-"

"It should be doing that!" the man shouted. "I designed that to prevent players from hurting themselves and there should be no way for them to be moving. Even if they're not connect, they shouldn't be up and moving if the Overlord has them trapped. This isn't possible, I find it hard to believe."

Cyrus had to agree with him as he found it hard to believe too. But from what P.I.X.A.L told and shown them, the news report of the hospital disappearences, this was something to believe now. "P.I.X.A.L, have you researched into the event further after your discovery?" he asked.

"I have actually." she replied to type on the tablet to have the screen change a different scenary. The three glanced around the view to realize the camera was close to the floor and slowly began to move from the android's control. They watched as P.I.X.A.L started to climb onto the wall and disappeared into an air duct. "I've done reconisence with the spider drone to survey the area after. . .my fright and felt like there was more than two. My hypothesis was correct as there are more than two." The camera peeked out of the vent grate to show them two more hospital patients, in gowns and NeuroGear helmets, roaming down the halls. The camera disappeared to move further down the vents.

"Alright. . ." Neuro acknowledged. "But it still doesn't explain to how my creation is not rendering them incapable of movement."

"I thoughts exact." The drone left a different vent to climb onto the wall. "But this is different on my discovery and I had to show you before I showed the authorities." She panned the camera to focus on her discovery.

The three stared at a large room with players surrounded around a metal case with a glass top. It made them think of it as a sarcophagus. Some players meandered around, attending to some computer consoles and diodes. Cyrus and Neuro were astonished to what they saw to turn to P.I.X.A.L as she nodded. "P.I.X.A.L, that's in sublevel B-6, right?" the wheelchaired man asked. She nodded. "What is happening then?"

"I wish I knew more clearly." she stated to move the drone aside to hide it. "But this is unnatural though. The missing patients are within our corporation, hiding below us as we speak. I don't know if we should notify the police of this."

"We must then." Cyrus said.

"But wait," Neuro interrupted. "This would be a bad end on our company. The patients are under our building, we notify the police, they would think we kidnapped them. Already enough we have players trapped in our game, we can't have the public think we're kidnapping hospital patients. This would ruin you, Cyrus, everything you stand for. It's best we send the recon drones out to retrieve the patients and return them to safety."

The man wanted to inject, but he stopped to think as his partner was right. The missing patients were on his property, they notify the police, it would be his head. It was something he couldn't risk even when being targeted by the media. "Very well, send them out." he agreed to see his assistant nod. This was becoming stranger by the second.

* * *

The rising sun broke through the treeline to have the rays reach onto the slumbering face of a teen. A groan escaped from his lips as the rays hit his eyes to turn his head away from the sun. But a foul smell had reached his nose to cringe and pried his eyes open. His vision was blurry to shake his head to yawn and wake up more to fix his vision and gaze at his new surroundings.

He found himself in a swamp like forest with rotting trees in a green pool of liquid. He felt nervous to the liquid as he couldn't see the bottom of the bog and saw vapors rising from the green pools. He heard the sound of frogs croaking in the distance. The trees around him stood tall and blocked most of the sunlight through its foliage with vines hanging off the branches. Lloyd glanced around to see the others around him on a small strip of land that was away from the water to raise a brow as he turned back to it. He grabbed a small stick to carefully stick it into the water to hear it hiss, the water churning to pull it out to see his stick was small and burnt. These bogs were acidic.

The blonde haired teen heard his friends groaning as well as they were slowly waking up to turn back to them. Cole was the first to sit up and stretch to gaze around their new surroundings. He raised a bushy brow as he studied the swamp they teleported to after their encounter with the Overlord and Morro's transformation. He turned to the spiky haired teen as he pulled himself up to groan and rub his head. "Really, Kai," he grumbled. "Out of all places, you picked the Toxic Bogs? What were you thinking? This is place is nothing but acid that can kill us."

The samurai turned to the knight to give him a quick glare and sighed. "I panicked, okay." he admitted. "I couldn't think straight since the virus was there and he changed Morro in front of us that wanted to kill us. Bright side, we're far from the prison and hopefully safe from Morro and his crazy followers."

"I understand your predicament, Kai." Zane said to pat his back. "Thank you for getting us to safety at least." He turned to Jay as he wasn't awake and calmly shook his shoulder. "Jay, please wake up, we're far from the prison."

The auburn groaned to shake the A.I's hand from him and slowly sat up to yawn. He stretched his arms to get to his feet and turned to the others. Their eyes were wide and their words were frozen in their throats to what they saw on the thief. Jay glanced at the others as they looked at him puzzled. "What? Something wrong?" he asked. "Something in my teeth?"

Lloyd glanced at the teen to ponder on what to say to him without him panicking. But he wasn't sure how Jay will react. "Um. . .don't freak out," he said. "But there is something different about you. . .that'll take time to heal and all. But don't freak out about it right now. Okay?" He saw him nod unsure to draw out his sword and held it at Jay to show him his reflection. "Don't freak out and remain calm."

Jay studied his reflection to have his hazel eye widen to scream the top of his lungs to have some birds flutter away. Half of the right side of his face was missing to have franctically feeling his face to realize he couldn't feel his right arm move to glance at his arm to realize it was missing at the shoulder. He screamed more to pace around the sand bar, trying to calm his nerves. "What happened!?" he screamed. "What happened to my face!? Where's my arm!? Where the heck are we!? I can't calm down knowing half of my body is missing!"

The knight quickly grabbed Jay to stop him from moving any closer to the acidic bogs and carefully set him down on a tree stump. "Now relax, okay." he said to try and calm him down. But he knew it wasn't working when he saw the pain and fear in his one eye. "We're in the Toxic Bogs, after Kai got us away from Morro and Overlord, and we blacked out. But you must've accidently rolled into a small puddle of the acid to have some of your body gone. But luckily it didn't kill you to only leave you in critical condition and it'll heal in no time. Just relax for the time being."

"How can I relax at a time like this!?" the auburn exclaimed. "I have one arm and eye missing, I need two hands to work with my spear here! I can't relax when it takes time to regain my missing body, most likely a day since it's this bad!" Sighing, he frowned as glanced at his missing arm and felt his missing face. "This is just the worst morning right now."

They had to pity the teen. He was right, the worst morning he was having. But it wasn't going to help him if he was sulking like this, Jay would have to be patient. Lloyd had sheathed his sword and patted Jay's back to comfort him. "Hey, it'll be alright." he said. "I get it that's hard, but you'll make it through. Just try to stay positive on it right now. We're far from the prison and are back together. So thank you, all of you, for finding me." He saw the thief smile to him to give him one back.

They all shared a smile together to agree with the blonde haired teen. They were far from the Overlord and Morro and were back together. Something to smile about as they were a group again and not loners. The best they could do for now was to relax and regain their health they may lost, and in Jay's case his body, and think of a new plan. They saw how powerful the Overlord was and what he was capable of to transform Morro into something new. Something they wouldn't see coming or capable to defend themselves against.

But something bothered Lloyd after his fight with Morro. The man was bargaining with the virus and could give him a body, he didn't know how, but what the Overlord said was something he couldn't comprehend. _What makes you think I haven't begun it already?_ "Zane, you recorded what the Overlord said, right?" he asked to see the A.I nod. "What do you suppose he meant?"

Zane only shrugged and opened his menu to pull out the recording. He replayed the event to have shivers down their spines to his voice. "Your NeuroGears allowed me to intercept your brainwaves, enabling me to rewire everything to have you under my control. I don't need a body when I'm having one being made and I'll soon rule this world and also take control of the real Ninjago." the recording said.

He pondered to replay the event again and again to draw a blank. Something didn't feel right to him to sigh and opened the console on the ground. He typed on the many keyboards to have images appear in front of him and carefully scanned each one. The algorithms and binary codes couldn't dechiper him a message. He decided to hack outside of the servers to pull up anything from the Borg Industries, knowing this would alert the Overlord of his presence if he wasn't quick enough. What he pull up made him raise a brow.

The five players studied the recorded images from security footages, to news reports from Gayle Gossip about missing hospital patients of Ninjago Online players. The A.I shifted his attention to a recording from Cyrus' assistant, P.I.X.A.L, to ponder as she was facing two people in hospital gowns and the NeuroGears over their faces. He grew more curious as they chased after her to shake his head as it didn't make sense to him. The NeuroGear was to enable players to not move and intercept brainwaves to move the player's avatar in the game. Something was strange to them.

They glanced at a video of a large room to have their eyes widen in curiousity. They watched as players moved around in gowns and their NeuroGear helmets. But they grew more curious as the players huddled around the metal case and glass cover to see the shadow of a body inside. The more the A.I studied it, it clicked into his systems. "I understand now." he gasped to quickly close the console to prevent the Overlord from finding him.

"What's wrong, Zane?" Cole asked.

"Everything now to what the Overlord Virus said." he replied to pace around the sandbar. He stopped to collect his breath and turned to the others. "The virus has become more self aware of himself. He was created to be a boss in the game and was destroyed as he was deemed unstable, but he made himself more self control like me."

"What does it have to do with anything we saw on the outside world?" Kai asked. "Even I'm confused to see moving players when they're not connected."

"Because he's controlling them." Zane watched as confusion clouded their face to sigh and collected himself. "What he meant was that he had intercepted the fallen players' brainwaves to manipulate them and brainwashed them. They're not connected, they're awake and out of the game, following the Overlord as puppets. He's not creating an army inside the game, but outside as well. And the body we saw is his body, slowing being made. He's becoming sentient."

Their eyes widen in fear and shock to what the A.I said. The virus was controlling people to have them roaming outside of Ninjago Online. This was shocking to the five to believe but the A.I knew more than they would so he had to be right. "Okay, let me get this straight." Jay said. "The dead players actually left the game and are moving in the real Ninjago. I mean that's unfair since we're stuck here, but this sounds weird though. And what about his army in this game and Morro? And what do you mean by sentient?"

"Sentient is the term known as 'able to perceive or feel things'." Zane replied. "The synonyms are feeling, aware, and living. He's able to create a body under secrecy. And to achieve his goal, he's using players' avatars as his army to prevent players from defeating him while outside he's using them as his other army."

"So. . .What can we do now?" Cole wondered. "There has to be away to stop him from getting to his body and free us and those zombie players."

This was happening too fast to them to comprehend and think. They could feel a weight grow on their chests to the outcome of the Overlord reaching his goal. There had to be a way to stop him from escaping the game, they couldn't let him until Zane could destroy him with the antivirus software in him. They had to find the Overlord now and soon. The virus had a goal, now they did as well.


	26. Rallying Up

**Chapter 26: Rallying Up**

A twig snapped to alert the five players to turn to the source with their weapons drawn out. Jay sighed as he gripped his spear oddly for holding it with one hand while his other arm was gone from the acidic bogs. But he had to be patient as it'll recover and the limb icon will vanish from his HP bar. The five players grew silent as their eyes traced around the tree lines of the swamp that surrounded them. Kai activated his Hunter Sense perk to listen carefully while Cole used his Plates Shift to feel for movement on the ground. From what both concluded, it wasn't a beast roaming around. It was a player, four of them.

They grew tense as they watched a brush shift from movement and watched a pair of hands peek out with a player stepping into their view. Their eyes narrowed and they gripped their weapons tightly as they recognized the player that was part of Morro's group. They could easily recognize the white tunic and armor and sunglasses on the player, Turner. The man gazed at the five tensed players to raise his hands in a form of surrender to see their gaze loosen but the grip on their weapons were tight. He couldn't blame them for he was hunting Lloyd for his former leader. "We're not here to fight." he said to them, calmly. "We surrender."

"Why should we trust you after all the things we've been through at Stiix." Jay hissed.

"Because we do and won't fight." Turner grabbed his sword from his belt to toss it into the sandbar that the players stood on. Lloyd only blinked as he stared at his broadsword to the truth, the man didn't want to fight. Turner glanced over his shoulder to nod and Chamille, Karloff, and Toxikita step out of the thicket and tossed their weapons to the five players. "See. We surrender and we want to help."

Their gaze were loose to their surrendering, but they kept a tight hold of their weapons. They weren't sure it was a trap to trick them, they knew what Chamille and Toxikita were capable of. "Help with what?" Kai asked. "Help you kill Lloyd for the Overlord so you can be free from the game. No way of that happening, we'll throw you into the bogs if you try to do that."

"It's not that." Toxikita stated. "Not anymore." A sigh came from the girl as she gazed at her teammates then to the group of players. "Morro was our leader until his fate lead him to the destruction of our home in this game. Many players like him fell to the Overlord's army. We're no longer under his guild or leadership."

The tone in her voice sounded. . .innocent. Like she was apologizing for what she had done to the five of them. This made Lloyd sheath his sword and turned to his friends to nod. But they slowly holstered their weapons. "How many survived?" he wondered.

"Most players in the Kryptarium Prison were guilds under their leaders and Morro." Chamille explained. "Few loner players escaped from the prison and the Overlord's army after he killed them to convert more players as his army. Some guilds escaped like we have. The Ghouls, Skulkin Army, and a group that calls themselves the Anacondrai Clan."

"Chen was there and he survived!?" Kai exclaimed. He watched the purple haired girl nod to growl. They all looked at him concerned. "I have a bad rep with that man and his guild. They're the reason why I hate guilds, and how I acted towards Cole's old guild."

"Because whatever he done to you made you what you are today then?" Cole proclaimed.

"Something like that. A twisted man to create a powerful army with the rarest weapons he could find. He's like what Jay called Nadakhan, a ruthless man." He could imagine the dark memories of his time in the game of the man and his guild to shake it away. It was something Kai would have to tell another time. There were more matters to deal with. "So only a handful of players from the prison survived the Overlord and there's the other guilds and players left in the game. This is getting worse by the minute."

Zane nodded with the samurai. "Indeed. The Overlord Virus is growing stronger in and out of the game with his army." he said.

"And we want to help." Karloff stated. "Outside this game, we all have family waiting for us to come back. We can't let him leave and rule our world. He has an army, we should well."

"And not us nine, but everyone." Turner added. He pointed to Lloyd. "And we want you to lead."

Lloyd's breath hitched as the man pointed at him. They wanted him to lead an army against the Overlord. Something he felt uncomfortable with. A huge weight on his shoulder and chest that could make him feel like it'll be his responsibility if he failed and thousands of players will become slaves to the virus to make his body. Cole was a guild leader, he should be nominated to lead the army. The teen would fail, he could feel it.

He felt his shoulder being tapped to see his friend's encouraging smiles to feel the weight on his chest grow. He wasn't sure if he could do it. Someone else should lead their army. Cole was strong, a leader by heart. Kai, a master blacksmith, he could create the powerful weapons to lead the army. Jay, a quick player, he was capable to plan tactics and his craft skills could create thousands of traps. Zane, the A.I, an unknown player who could easily destroy the virus, but with the growing Stone Army, he wasn't capable of getting closer to use the antivirus. Lloyd, he had nothing that could make himself a leader, it was something he couldn't do. He didn't feel strong enough.

"I-I don't know. . ." he sighed. His friend's smiles disappeared to his answer, even the other players looked at him worried. "I'm afraid I'll fail to lead an army. That's one of the many reasons why I've been a loner in this game. If I lead an army, it'll be blood on my hands to the people I lose to the virus. Something I'd never forgive myself."

They were silent to his response to understand him. Something Cole understood when he had a guild. It was blood on his hands since he lost his team to the Fangpyres. He can't forgive himself for their loss. But he can still give Lloyd hope to lead them. "I know what you mean." he said to the teen. "Since I lost my guild, I can't forgive myself for their loss and are now being mindless zombies to the Overlord. Here I'm thinking now, I'm weak to even face against the virus without them. But I know you can do it."

Lloyd glanced at the knight to shake his head that he couldn't. Cole grabbed his chin to make him look at him in the eyes. He could see tears forming in his emerald eyes to sigh. "You are a strong player." he continued. "You've never backed down from a fight, able to survive against Morro's wraith. This is something you could do. After all, you're the one who formed us together as a guild. You never gave up hope for us and we never gave up hope to find you." He released his hold on his chin to rest his hand where Lloyd's real heart would be outside the game. "Because inside, there's a thing called hope. It's destiny to bring hope to people who are weak in their time of need. Thousands of players need hope now if they wish to leave this game and be with family again. We all do. And I know inside of you, you have the hope to help everyone."

He glanced at the raven haired teen to ponder what he said. It was true he was the one who brought them together since they were all loners. And he never gave up hope for when they were rescuing him from Morro and when his friends were fighting against the Great Devourer. He never backed down from a fight, able to defeat Morro against his sword, and even helped players when they were heading to Stiix. The more Lloyd thought of it, he started to realize they were right of him leading. If he was able to defeat a powerful player because of revenge, he should be able to defeat the Overlord with an army.

"Alright." he said quietly. "I'll do it. I'll do it!" His emerald eyes narrowed to draw out his sword to grip the handle tightly in one hand to have it glow a dark green aura to jump off the sandbar to give out a cry as he slashed a large, thick tree in a quick swipe. The eight players felt a powerful force brush past them after the teen struck the tree to watch the tree fall from the clean cut to smile. Lloyd was breathing heavily as he felt the weight off his chest and felt new energy swell inside him to sheath his sword. "The Overlord is growing stronger by the minute the longer we wait. If we don't act now, both this world and our world is doomed to his wraith. We must rally up our army if we wish to see and feel our homes."

All were smiling to his encouragement. They could see the fire blazing in his eyes to agree with him. All wanted to leave this game and be with those they love. And now Lloyd had the hope to help the remaining players to leave the game and defeat the virus once and for all. "And to do that, we must bring everyone back together to the beginning of everything." Kai said and turned to Zane. "Zane, if you do the honors."

"It'll be my pleasure." the A.I said to open the console. The four new players knew he wasn't a player, but an artificial intelligent being, because they overheard everything. They were still surprised what he was capable of doing. "And forget about the Overlord finding me, I want to help Jay at least."

He tapped onto his arm and face with the console and a bright light filled the area to have Jay smile ecstatically to his regrown arm and face. The auburn moved his arm around and twirled his spear to feel more control of his weapon to laugh in joy. "You know you could've done this earlier, right?" he said, annoyed.

"Yes, but I figured it would've been better and beneficial for you to heal on your own." the A.I smirked. "Now back to business." He began to tap onto the keyboard.

Lloyd glanced to the side to see a golden sword with a crystal hilt sticking into the soft ground of the swamp. It was Morro's sword, the Sword of Sanctuary. He forgotten he took it from the man after he defeated him back in the office. But now it was a helpful weapon to help them against the Overlord as he gripped the handle and drew it from the ground. The sword glowed a bright gold aura as the teen twisted the blade around in his hand and sheathed it behind his back with his own sword. He was ready now.

A bright blue light surrounded the nine players and all disappeared as they teleported from the Toxic Bogs. Time to rally up an army.


	27. Gathering of the Players

**Chapter 27: Gathering of the Players**

Quietness surrounded the large plaza square of the beginning town of the game. Few players roamed the pavement streets except for the NPCs that acted as civilians and shop merchants to the large city. The morning sun gleamed the palace of the city to the quietness of the city. Some say a large guild operated inside the palace, others say it was a rumor. The town itself was the largest city of the game, but it was to represent Ninjago City of the game with the palace as Borg Industries. But with every other player scattered in the game, the city was almost a ghost town.

In the center of the plaza square, a blue light surrounded the area and died to have nine players appearing in the square. Lloyd glanced around the area to feel nostalgia of the area to feel haunted of it. This was the starting area for when the game had launched to spawn thousands of players. It was the same day when the Overlord took over to trap the players to use for his army and now control them to make his sentinal body. But guilt clung to the teen as it was day he ran from his friends Brad and Gene because he wanted them to leave for their survival when they wanted to help other players. He wondered if they hate him for what he done and probably wouldn't to talk to him ever again.

Kai glanced around the empty square to turn to Lloyd to see he had pain his eyes to wonder about him. It made him think that this area was what all other players think about it, the day they were trapped in the game. But maybe to Lloyd, it was something else that the samurai will probably never know of. He glanced to Zane as the A.I had the console in front of him, typing on the keyboards. "Perfect place to gather everyone left standing in the game." he acknowledged. But he grew concerned to some of the players that were actually kids and he didn't want them to fight the Overlord. He shook the thought away. "Zane, how much closer are you to connect all players to teleport them here?"

"It'll take me a few more minutes." the cloaked player said.

"We just sent a message to the remaining guilds that survived the assault to meet here as well." Turner added. "They'll be here momentarily."

"Let's hope they'll cooperate and not try to kill Lloyd, even though it's a safe zone." Jay said.

"We'll make sure of that. Even with the other guilds."

They were quiet as they let Zane work on the console to be surrounded in an orb. His dark blue eyes were focused as he typed on the many holographic keyboards and moved some bianary codes around to connect them to the servers. A smile crept on his face as he had a lock on all players and and closed the console. "And here they come." he said.

Lloyd watched as the large square was soon surrounded in a bright white light to shield his eyes with the others. He felt the ground move underneath him to remain still as Zane rose the ground to give them a stage to address the crowd. The light finally died and thousands of players gathered in the square to look around surprised and confused. Lloyd heard them talk among one another to their sudden teleporting, like on the first day. While others were shouting to why they were here when they were in the middle of fighting in dungeons. Lloyd didn't show any smile or emotion as he wanted to be calm and was glad to see how many players remained for their garrison.

The crowd decided to get edgy to their sudden teleportation and some tried to leave the square. Zane saw this and quickly held his hand out to create a wall of ice to keep the players from leaving. He nodded to Lloyd to have a large screen of Lloyd appear above them to help address the crowd. Lloyd nodded. "Everyone, listen!" he began. The crowd became quiet. "Yes, this is all sudden and many of you wonder why you're brought here, but we have called this meeting to warn you of the Overlord."

There hushed murmurs in the crowd and a burly player pushed his way through the crowd. He stopped at the base of the raised ground to snort at the blonde. "Why should we listen to you?" he hissed. "Back at Jamanakai Village, Morro warned us of you that you're a trouble and has to be dealt with because of what your family has done to his." He drew out a cross bow took aim on Lloyd. "So I'd rather not listen to you and would like to go on with my day." He fired the bolt.

Lloyd remained still to the arrow heading toward him, knowing it wouldn't hurt him or his HP bar. But Karloff quickly stood in front of the blonde to take the arrow into his chest to snort and broke it off. He jumped off the stage to stand in front of the player to tower over him to see the fear in his eyes as he snatched him off the ground by the back of his armor. He glared at him to knock the weapon out of his hand and tossed him aside. Turner, Chamille, and Toxikita joined their teammate to stand guard of the five players.

Lloyd smiled to their support, despite the past they had before when Morro was their leader. "Now you have to listen because the fate of this world and our homes are in danger to the Overlord Virus." he continued. "Many may not know this, but the Overlord is growing stronger with his army. But his army doesn't involve our fallen brethern and sisters of the game, it involves outside the game. The Overlord has been using us, using our avatar bodies for his army. But outside the game, he is also using us to be his slaves." He turned to Zane to see the A.I nod and step next to him. "Zane here is an A.I sent from Cyrus and Neuro and his main objective is to find the Overlord and destroy it with the antivirus in his algorithms. But due to the high rising players being the virus' army, it's been impossible to reach him."

"If he's an A.I, how come he can't free us from this game!?" a female player shouted. The crowd shouted to agree with here until a high shriek filled the area to have the crowd silent. Lloyd knew that was the same player that had shrieked to warn them of their escape, she was from the Ghouls.

"Thank you." Zane said to the silence. He opened the console to have enlarged images surround the players to display of their discoveries. The players studied each of the images to feel stunned and surprised to the news reports of missing players from the hospitals to the missing people roaming down the halls and weren't connected. They were more stunned to the gathering of people in a large room and surrounded the metal sarcophagus and could see a body inside it. "As you can see, the Overlord has manipulated our fallen players and rewired their brainwaves to have them under their control. He has brainwashed them. They're no longer inside the game, but outside the game. But they're in a coma state under his control to create a body for him. He's becoming sentient and once he has his body, he will take control of both worlds."

"We're not sure why he's doing this." Kai added. "But as he told us before, he was suppose to be a boss in the game, but was unstable to be used and was destroyed. But he became stronger to hack into the game and trap us and will make us zombies to his reign. But once he has his body, he will be unstoppable."

"This is why we called you here." Jay stated. "Many of us have family and friends in this and outside the game. But if the Overlord wins this game, everyone you know and love will not survive his wraith. This is what he's capable of." Zane pulled the video recording of Lloyd's fight with Morro and the confession of the Overlord's plans. The crowd watched with interest to his plan but some screamed as they watched the virus change Morro into a four arm general and soon destroyed the prison of the game.

"You may like it or not," Cole added. "But this virus is becoming unstoppable if we don't act now. But if we act now, we can hold him off and destroy him from destroying all of us. If he has an army, we will be an army together and defeat this thing once and for all." He turned to Lloyd. "And he will lead the army. He's capable of handling everything under pressure and would know the best tactics to help defeat it. After all, he did help me find a new group after I lost my guild and he never gave up hope for when Morro tried to use him as a key to let only himself leave this game. You may not know it from before, Morro wanted nothing to but to leave this game and kill an innocent kid because of bad blood. And those of you who supported him should be ashamed."

The crowd grew silent and those that were at the meeting in Jamanakai Village felt ashamed to the knight's words. They had no idea to what the man's true plans were. Lloyd knew he couldn't forgive them and Morro if he ever left this game. But he would do anything to get everyone out of the game and destroy the virus. "The virus is close to obtaining his body along with his army growing." he finished. "With all of us together, we have the number and abilities to help defeat the virus' army since they're not our old friends. I may not look like the leader type, but I can try and give you all freedom from this game and we all can see our families and friends again. But it won't be just me, but them as well." He turned to his friends.

"These guys have been through a lot with me and each of them will help us leave this game once and for all." he continued. "With them as your generals, they have the strength and skills to help you all fight against this deity." He glanced at the crowd as they murmurred with one another. He could tell some didn't want to fight along side with them against the virus. "If don't want me to lead and to fight, then leave. But be warned, this is your final chance or risk your life against the dangers of the game and become part of Overlord's growing army. But if we team up, together this will be our final chance to destroy the virus and leave this game. So everyone of Ninjago Online, who's with us!?"

The crowd was silent to respond as they glanced at one another. A large chance to leave the game for good, their wildest dream to come true. A single player drew out his claymore sword to hold it out to Lloyd. Next to him, the female player drew out her mace and another player drew his axe out and hold them to Lloyd. Even, Chamille, Toxikita, Turner, and Karloff drew their weapons to him. Soon more and more players drew out their weapons to hold them out to the teen on the platform and each weapon glowed a different aura as they channeled their energy to signify their alligence. "For freedom!" they shouted. "For Ninjago!"

A smile grew on Lloyd's face to see that every player was joining their side. It worked, players were willingly joining their crusade to leave the game. He turned to his friends to see their smile and each drew their weapons out to him while having them glow a color of their aura. A bit of guilt clung to him as he was worried that they'll fail their retaliation against the virus. But he shook the thought away to not let fear cloud his mind as he had a job to lead an army. "Ninjago Online," he shouted. "By tomorrow, we challenge the Overlord Virus in the Corridor of Elders! This is will be our final stand to beat this game and we shall leave as one. Get prepared, find your strongest weapon, restock on your health potions, we're not going to let this virus defeat us."

The players shouted in agreement.


	28. Preparations and Propositions

**Chapter 28: Preparations and Propositions**

Players were spread throughout the large city of the game. Many of the other players were out hunting to gain experience points to level up against the Overlord and his army. Some players engaging in combat with others to train and hone in on their skills. And some were shopping to resupply their apothecary items and conversed with one another as the day was almost over. This felt like real activity of Ninjago City outside of the game.

Lloyd glanced around as he walked down the cobblestone streets to smile a little to the number of players around him. He knew they wanted freedom from the virus as he did as well. But he still felt guilt climb up in his throat to the thoughts that he could be a failure of a general to lead thousands of players to their doom of the virus. He shook the thought away to not let it cloud his mind as he had to focus. Thousands of players were relying on him to leave the game.

As the blonde hair teen made his way through the market streets, he caught sight of his friends within the crowd. Jay was in charge of the Ghouls and was briefing them of his plans to use their archery skills. Kai was with other blacksmiths and each were taking a mallet to pound onto an iron ignot to forge many weapons they can for any unexperience players. And Cole and Zane were helping players train their skills and abilities. Lloyd had to smile has his friends each played their part as his commanders to aid him and every other player to leave the game.

Jay was finishing on the briefing with the Ghouls and dismissed them. The auburn teen stretched himself to feel fatigue and worried. He never lead an army or guild before and felt worried about failing them. He had to wonder if Lloyd felt the same since he's the general to every player in the game. But he and his friends have been through a lot in this game to get this far to gather all the players to siege against the virus and his army. He still worried for one thing that still lingered in the game on him.

"Well if it isn't little Jay, the thief." a burly voice boomed. Jay jumped to the voice to feel his back turn stiff and turned to face a guild that has been hunting him. A tall, burly man with long raven hair and orange tinted armor and a shawl around his chest. And next to him were his second-in-commands dressed in pirate like attire. Jay felt his heart racing to the guild; Nadakhan and the Skybound Pirates guild. The guild that's been hunting him to mark him as a thief for his bounty.

Nadakhan glanced at the auburn teen to give him a smirk. Jay felt nervous to his presence since he hasn't seen him since he fled from his fortress after stealing his spear and rare metal. "You look well to survive this long after I set that bounty on your head." he commended to laugh a little. "I don't know how, but you did. Nice work then."

Unsure what to do, Jay only gave out a sheepish laugh to the man. It felt awkward to him that he's not being drugged out the city's wall and killed for his bounty. "I guess I just have great luck to survive this far then." he stated.

"Indeed." the man chuckled to pat his shoulder and motioned Jay to follow him. "Listen, I want to make a. . .proposition with you. About putting our past aside in this game for we wish to follow under your lead, commander." Jay gulped a little to his words as he wasn't sure where he was going with this. "You may have the Ghouls as your archers, but you're going to need an army as well for artillary fire support. We have the ability for such, it's from what the metal we had made cannons for our fortress, the same metal you even stolen from us. But now we will use them for your need."

They stopped at the fountain in the center of the city square to have Nadakhan rest his hands on both of Jay's shoulders. "I want to leave this game and so does my guild." he continued. "And we are relying on you and your friend to help us and thousands of other players. If we ever do make it out alive in this game, we can consider your bounty no longer wanted. But. . .if we don't destroy the virus, consider our differences back to foes and your bounty still wanted. What do you say, commander?" He chuckled lightly. "Keep the spear by the way. It suits you well."

Jay nervously laughed a little to his proposition. The man was willingly to remove his bounty on him for the departure from the game. But if that was only if they do make it out of the game. "You can count on me, Nadakhan." he replied, nervously. The man chuckled and turned to take his leave with his guild following with him into the crowd. Jay couldn't help but let out a loud sigh of relief to his encounter with him and sat on the fountain edge. "What am I going to do now?"

* * *

Mallets pounded on the metal ingots as six players each swung at the metal in a circle. The formation of skilled blacksmiths working together to forge strong weapons to retaliate against the virus. Kai, leading the other blacksmiths, took the final swing of the metal ingot to have it glow on the anvil. A smile of relief came from the samurai's face as the ingot morphed and the light died down to reveal a new weapon on the anvil; a simple broadsword. But when Kai examined the stats of the blade, he smirked as the stats were excellent from the combined skills from other blacksmiths.

The samurai studied the weapon more and gently set it onto a weapons rack where other weapons were forged from him and others. The sword looked excellent to his advantage, but he prefered his katana more than any other weapon. "All right, that was the last iron ingots," he said to the other blacksmiths. "Let's call it a day now. I think we used up the resources we could get our hands and used up our skills to the max." He watched the other blacksmiths nod and took their leave and turned to tap on the anvil to have it disappear off the road. He turned to the weapons to examine their stats again to ensure their stability, but he glared at a reflection casted on a shield to quickly draw out his sword and spun on his heels to have the blade rested on someone's neck.

A small chuckle came from the man to the sword on his neck to laugh. The samurai's glare remain to the man's dark eyes, keeping his blade on his neck. "You still have that attitude of yours," the man laughed. "That's one of the reasons why I liked you, Kai." He gently pushed the katana to adjust the snake skull and purple tail head piece of his. Kai did not wish to reply and kept a tight grip on his sword on the man. "But you must understand that we could put our differences aside, right?"

"You should be dead if you were at the prison when the Overlord attacked, not here, Chen." the samurai hissed. "How you got out alive is impossible for you're one not to fight but rather watch others fight to the death."

Chen laughed a little to make Kai rest his sword back to his neck. "I have my ways, Kai." he said to push the weapon aside again. "It's one of the things that I did teach you after all." He studied the weapons behind him to give him a small smile. "Nice work by the way, you've been keeping yourself busy since you left. We've missed you after all."

"I left because of your sadistic ways in this game." Kai grumbled to sheath his sword. "Forcing other players to fight to the death to join your ranks in your guild, having me as your bounty hunter, even have me try to kill your own daughter. Skylor won't forgive you for that."

A sigh came from Chen to agree with the samurai, but his smile remained on his lips to circle around the burnet. "What Skylor doesn't know doesn't concern with you." he said. "She doesn't know I _accidently_ sent the hit on her. But let's not worry about the past. Let's more worry about the present about leaving the game in one piece. If we ever do make it out alive, I'll do everything in my power to apologize to those I watched for my amusement. And I'll even let you and your friends eat at my restaurants for free for a couple months."

Kai kept his glare on the man to his words to try and talk his way out of what he done before. And his way of bargaining for forgiveness to the players he forced for his amusement. He wanted to kill the man here and now, but he couldn't for being in the safe zone. "How can I trust you that you would keep your word?" he asked. "Your words were how I first joined your guild, but could your words be true?"

Chen snickered. "Trust me," he said. "You'll know when we leave this game." He fixed his cape and turned to leave. He stopped to turn his parter, a man around the same age as Chen dressed similar to him, but without the head piece. "Clouse, let's head out. I want to try and enjoy more of this game before the big fight."

"Of course sir." Clouse said to bow and followed beside him.

He was breathing heavily and angrily as the two disappeared into the crowd. A man he wanted to inact revenge on was within his reach, but he just let him go. The talk with Chen played back in his head to make him shake his head to sigh. The man was sadistic as Morro was for Lloyd, but he had to wonder if he would be true to his word about forgiving the players he watched slaughtered. He pushed it aside to turn back to the weapons to take inventory. "I hope you're true to your word, Chen." he mumbled. "Other wise, I'm turning you into the police and let Skylor know."

* * *

A smile crossed Lloyd's face as he came to the city's tall wall to sigh a bit and turned his head to feel nostalgia flood over him. He was staring at a familiar street to have himself walk toward it and into the empty alleyway. It was where it all started when the players were trapped in the game, where he tried to get his friends, Brad and Gene, to follow with him to leave the city and gather resources before everyone else ravange the city. But his friends denied his decision and rather help players. Which made him run out of the city and could feel guilt climb up his throat to desert his friends.

He had to wonder if they would ever forgive him.

The sound of something rushing toward him perked his ears to spun on his heels. But found himself quickly tackled to the ground. A groan escaped from the teen as he had two weights on his chest to lift his head and could only blink to what he saw. A look of confusion crossed his face as he stared at the smiling faces of Brad and Gene. Something felt off to him. "Told you he would come back here, Gene." Brad gloated. "But you said otherwise."

"No. I said I'm sure he'll wander around and find himself in this specific spot." Gene retorted. "You're just taking my words into your own, Brad."

Lloyd remained quiet to their argument as he was still stunned to be tackled by them. Even from their smiles. But he felt uncomfortable to them sitting on his chest and cleared his throat to have them turn to him. "Can you guys please get off of me before you break something?" he asked, politely. He saw them nod and climbed off of him and pulled him to his feet. The teen brushed himself off and turned to his friends. "What are you guys talking about anyway? Here I'm feeling guilty at this spot and seeing your smiles makes me nervous because here I thought you guys would be mad at me."

Their smiles were still plastered to their faces to make the teen nervous about them still. Not one hint of anger or hate in their eyes. "Well we're kind of are mad at you for running off like that." Brad said. "But we were more worried for you to run off into no man's land without anyone with you. We're glad to see you're alive still and not part of the Overlord's army. "

"But still, we wonder why you just ran off though." Gene added. "Because we undestood you wanted to leave and all but still, why did you ran off? Because you were a beta tester to train me and could've train other players, but you looked worried to run off and never heard from since."

Sighing, Lloyd was cornered now. But he had to be honest with them. He did run away from them, ignoring them as they shouted for him to come back. "Because I was afraid." he finally admitted. "Because I didn't want to endanger other players who haven't had experience in this game like I do as a beta tester and didn't want to be called. . .a cheater for being a tester. And if we ever went against something strong, it would've been my fault that those players were gone and I couldn't help them quick enough. That's why I ran off, for your guy's safety and others if I joined a guild." His head drooped and he could feel artifical tears cascade down his cheeks. "I don't know if you guys will ever forgive me, but I'm sorry to run off from you and leave you like that. If you guys don't want to see me anymore outside of the game, that's fine. I'm the worse friend to hang out with."

He turned to leave, but he felt his hand being grabbed to turn and saw tears form from his childhood friends. He was stunned to make them cry and was pulled into a tight embrace from them. Confused, Lloyd blinked for a couple second, but wrapped his arms around them to smile softly and they pulled off of him. "We forgive you, Lloyd." Gene said. "We don't think you're the worst friend ever, you were doing what was best to us and other players despite it was a guilty move. We're just glad you're still alive and are ready to fight along side with you against the virus."

"Besides, when we do make it out, you still owe us a pizza." Brad smirked.

A quivering smile came from the blonde haired teen to their forgiveness. He was glad the guilt on his chest was finally broken and he can breathe better. Day and night, he always wondered about them, worried if they haven't fallen to the virus' army. But seeing them again made him relieved and glad to have still be his best friends. "Thank you, guys." he said. "And I promise, when we do make it out, there's an extra large pepperoni with our names on it." They nodded and turned to take their leave as Lloyd had to find his commanders.

A smile remained plastered to the teen's face as he walked through the streets. His friends had forgiven him, he had an army to help defeat the virus, and they were one step closer to leave the game. He wasn't even being hunted by Morro or anyone for bad blood. He still wondered why the man wanted revenge on him for their grandfather's old partnership. Maybe his father or uncle knew more of Morro's family. But he was relieved to everything around him and felt new energy where he felt he couldn't fail everyone to leave the game.

Nothing could go wrong for him.

"Hey Kid, there you are." a rough voice called out to him. Lloyd stopped to the voice to turn and glared at the man. Ronin was walking beside Zane as the two met up with the teen to watch him slowly reach for his sword. But he held his hands up slowly. "Take it easy, Kid. I'm not here to hurt you or anyone."

"Why should I trust you then?" he said. "You were holding me captive for Morro."

"But it was under the threat of death, Lloyd." Zane spoke up to push his hand away from his sword. The teen raised a brow to the man. "He was part of Morro's ranks, but he's the only one to retaliate against him. Long story short, he was under the threat of death if he didn't help capture you and he didn't want to help him. But he is the one who did help us find you at the Kryptarian Prison."

He couldn't speak as he glanced at the man to see the truth in his dark eye. When recalling, he did look ashamed when they were in his shop and he locked them in with Morro. He didn't have an iron grip on him, but still a strong grip to detain him. Whatever Morro done to the man to leave him, must've been something to make the shop owner help him then under death.

Ronin smiled to the teen to pat his shoulder. "Look, you have every right to hate me for helping him." he said. "The past is long gone now, Morro is gone as part of the army, we don't have to worry about debts or revenge from him. But that's not why I came to you about apologizing. It's something else." He opened his menu to browse through his inventory and pressed an item to send it out to the teen. "I believe this will be more benefical to you than me. May look like light armor, but the stats on it are S-leveled. You're basically indestructible at that point."

Intrigued, Lloyd waited as a holographic screen appeared in front of him and tapped on the accept gift button. The screen widen in front of him to study the clothing he was given to smile. Something he never thought existed in the game, but it was amazing. It may look light to him and abnormal than other armors in the game. But it was a powerful to his arsenal. "I think it's perfect." he said.


	29. War

**Chapter 29: War**

The sun rose high in the afternoon sky above the canyon. Players stood within the stretched rocky area, armed and ready. The wind howled softly as they stood guard. Around them were towering walls of stone, etched with the names of the fallen players from the game. Outside of the game, the canyon was known as the Corridor of Elders. In the game, it was the Corridor of Players.

Lloyd stood in the frontlines with the players behind him, staring into the distance. Originally, he was donned in his long green coat, he was dressed in different armor. A golden ninja gi with emerald green etchings into armor. It may be light and breatheable fabric, but the stats on the armor were high and powerful to a person. To Lloyd, it meant he will be quick and hard to kill against the Overlord's army. The teen glanced at his two swords, his orginal and the Sword of Sanctuary, to sheathe them behind his back and glanced over his shoulder.

Kai stood behind the teen to stand next to him and stared at the other end of the long trench. The samurai could see the worriness in his eyes, but his face showed the determination he had when he defeated Morro. But he wondered if he still felt worried about leading every remaining player against the virus. "We're ready when you are, Lloyd." he said. "It's now or never and this will be our only chance out of the game, for good."

He glanced at the spiky haired teen to nod and turned back to the empty canyon. He drew a deep breath as he was right. Now or never, this was their only chance to leave the game and stop the Overlord from obtaining his body. "So let's get started then." he said and walked ahead to stand in the clearing. "Overlord! Come out! We are here to settle it once and for all!"

It was quiet, except for the wind howling past the players. The teen stood still to glance over his shoulder to see Kai shrug his shoulders to turn back to the canyon. He hoped they weren't too late. But the sound of thunder relieved him that the virus was still in the game as they were to watch a large purple bolt strike the ground at the end of the canyon. Thousands of the virus' army filled the end of the corridor with an unknown individual in the center. Kai applied his Hunter Senses to enhance his vision on the individual to see it wasn't one of the stone-like creatures. He was tall, black skin in dark purple and gold armor and headpiece with a crude shaped weapon attached to his hip. But when he saw the eyes, his mouth dropped. They were red and they burned evil and hatred.

"It's the Overlord." he breathed quietly. He quickly rushed to Lloyd. "We need to be careful now. He has a body here and that means his body outside is almost complete. We need to end this now." Worried, Lloyd glanced into the center to see the individual to realize the same thing the samurai saw to nod. They had to finish it now.

The Overlord made his way through his army to stand in the frontlines to see the two players in the clearing. A crude smile formed on his face to reveal sharp teeth. "Who here challenges me to the death?!" he bellowed. "I see two lone players who want nothing but mercy."

Lloyd gulped a little to see a living body of the virus, but he stood tall to show the bravery for the sake of the other players. He didn't want them to panic against the assault. "Not just two players," he said back. "But the remaining players of the game. We want our freedom from your control and this will be the death of you for our freedom. We won't let you win in both this world and our world outside the game. This will end now."

The virus glanced back the two players to see the remaining players to chuckle lightly. All the players were there and it meant more people to his army. He glanced at Lloyd to realize it was the same player he saw the other night against his general to smirk. All the players to his disposal. "So it shall be." he chuckled. "But this will be your final stand against me and my army." He turned to disappear back into the crowd of his army. He glanced over his shoulder to see Lloyd and Kai retreat to their garrison and waved his hand. "Kill them, archers!"

The frontline stone warriors walked in unison with crossbows in hand. Three rows of the warriors loaded their weapons and aimed at an angle and fired. Lloyd turned at he heard the arrows being fired to watch as they blocked the sun and knew they were coming closer. "Now!" he shouted and kick in the sand to pull out a shield and held it over him. Other players followed with him to have shields cover them. The teen waited anxiously and heard the metal arrows collide against their shields like a metallic drum until everything was quiet. He cautiously peeked to see the arrows that pierced his shield and glanced around to see other shields and no signs of fallen players as they stood up. He smirked. "Jay, now!"

On top of the corridors, the auburn teen came into view to glance down at the Overlord army and theirs. He glanced over his shoulder to see the Ghouls with their bows out and glanced across the canyon to see Nadakhan and his guild pushing cannons to the ledge, loading them. He held his spear high. "Archers! Pirates!" he shouted to see them take aim. He directed his spear to the warriors. "Fire!" The arrows flew high and fell to strike at the Overlord's archers and there was a loud bang as the cannons fired to strike at any of the warriors.

The Overlord turned on his heels to see his army shatter as their HP bars depleted to growl. He glanced at the players above them in the corridor and the shield players to draw out his sword and aimed it at them. "Kill them all!" he demanded. His army drew their swords out and charged.

"Here they come!" Lloyd shouted to draw his swords. Kai drew his katana out and the players drew their weapons to stand guard. He glanced up at Jay's position to see the knight next to the thief to nod. "Cole, do it!"

"I'm on it!" the raven haired teen said to run along the ledge and drew out his scythe. He grabbed onto a rope that was anchored to the side of the canyon and jumped off. His scythe glowed a black aura as he swung along the canyon wall and dragged the crescent blade along the rocky wall to have chunks of the canyon fall down and swung back onto the ledge. Chunks of earth fell down to the charging stone army and created a blockade with the process of crushing some of the foes.

The players on the ground cheered to the blockade of rocks blocking the Overlord's path. But it was cut short as a powerful blast forced the blouders away to reveal the Overlord with his hand held up. His red eyes burned more to the players as his army charged again to kill the remaining players. Lloyd glared at the virus and heard something squawking to glance at the sky to see Zane's falcon swooping down. Zane opened his menu to pull out a bow to have an arrow burn with fire at the end and fired it at the bird. The falcon combusted into flames and had fire trail behind it as he swooped down along the ground to create a wall of fire on the charging garrison.

The fire roared tall between the players and virus and watched as the warriors slowly made their way through the fire. Some even substained fire damage to inflict their HP bar. But once the creatures crossed through the fire, they charged. Lloyd held his sword high. "This is for our freedom!" he cried. "This is for our home! This is for Ninjago!" He charged.

"FOR NINJAGO!" Everyone shouted.

The other players yelled out their battle cries and charged with the teen. Lloyd gripped his swords tightly to have energy power the blades in a bright green aura to jump and twist his body. The two blades striked at the body of a stone warrior to hear it cry out in pain to swing his sword at the teen. Lloyd blocked them to strafe to the left as he raised his sword. He swiped at his legs to have it kneel and pierced its chest to have it shatter as he defeated it. He was breathing heavily and turned to the next one charging for him. He steadied himself without glancing at Morro's old sword.

The stone warrior drew closer to golden armored teen to raise his sword at him, ready to strike. But a powerful force push the warrior away to have Lloyd turn his head as Brad and Gene landed in front of him, guarding him. He smirked to their smirks and stood back to back as they were surrounded by players and stone warriors. "Just like the second day of the beta, Lloyd." Brad said to grip his mace and shield tightly. "When we were surrounded by those skeletons and left with heavy treasures."

"Just like the second day." Lloyd agreed and fought of any warriors that got closer to them.

* * *

On top of the canyon, Jay and Cole glanced at the battle below them. The Ghouls provided support fire with their bows while Nadakhan and his guild fired their cannons to any of the stone warriors that crossed through the fire to weaken them. But as they watched the battle unfold, they could see some of the virus' army killed off, but they watched some of the remaining players killed off as well. This worried them. They glanced at each other to nod and jumped.

The wind howled past their ears as they fell and held their weapons tightly as they drew near the ground. Jay's spear glowed a bright blue aura to twist his body and impaled it through the body of a warrior to land safely and leaped off to strike the next stone warrior. Cole, however, had his scythe glow its black aura to land straight for the ground to have a crater form around him and several of the stone warriors to have a cloud of dust form around him. He rushed out of the cloud dust to meet up with the auburn and sliced at any of the stone warriors near him to give out leverage to the players that were fighting them.

A small cry of help caused the knight to stop and glance around his surroundings quickly. It sounded like the cry of help from a kid. Cole quickly spotted the one calling for help to see a kid with light brown hair and in purple clothing pinned to the ground with a rock on his legs. And standing above him was an archer that had his crossbow aimed for him. A look of horror crossed Cole's face to charge for the kid and swung his weapon to kill the weaken warrior. He removed the blouder from the kid's pinned legs to see the damage he received, possibly limb damage for him to walk. "What are you doing here, Kid?" he scowled, lightly. "Don't you know this is a dangerous area right now? And we specifically told all kids to stay back at the city for their safety."

"I-I wanted to help, okay." the kid said, shamefully. "I didn't know it would be this scary. But I can't walk, my bar says limb damage on it. Plus my name is Nelson and not kid, okay."

Sighing, Cole knew he was right about his damages. He quickly threw the kid onto his back and he held on tightly. "I'm getting you back to the medics, they'll take care of you and will send you back to the city. What ever you do, don't come back. Got it?" Nelson nodded and the knight ran back to get to the medics. He groaned as he was going to miss some of the battle, but it was for Nelson's safety.

* * *

A battle cry came from the blonde haired teen as he swung both swords to three of the stone warriors to have them shattered as they were killed off. He was breathing heavily to quickly glance at his sword's golden blade to see a stone archer firing toward his general direction. He quickly glanced to his left to see the same archer arm his crossbow and fired at him to lean his body to the side to avoid the arrow. He quickly grabbed a throwing knife from his belt and threw it at the warrior's head to have its HP bar drain and shattered. Lloyd sighed as he wanted to take a break. But being surrounded with players and the Overlord's army meant he couldn't take one at the moment. Fight to the end or die trying as he thought over and over.

He glanced around to see Kai and Zane working together to fend off any warriors like he was with Brad and Gene. Jay and Cole weren't above them with the Ghouls and figured they were with them in the battlefield. He quickly spotted Jay in the crowd, but Cole wasn't anywhere in sight to feel worried for the knight. But knowing Cole, he was strong to defend for himself. He was probably farther back to them.

Lloyd quickly retreated back to his childhood friends to push any of the stone warriors back. He watched as players were killed off while some of the warriors were killed off after. A pit in his stomach grew with worry as the players that were relying on him were dying and he couldn't save them or do anything to help. They were probably going to hate him if they ever made it out alive.

"Don't fret about it, Lloyd." Gene said to kill off a warrior. "You're doing all you could. Everyone won't forget about that." Nodding, Lloyd had to agree with him. He's doing everything he could to help everyone get out of the game and kill the virus.

Many of the stone warriors around them retreated back to make the blonde haired teen raise a brow and noticed none of the players charged after them. Every player grew quiet and the arrows stopped firing to the commotion. Lloyd heard heavy footsteps and breathing to turn and gulp to what he saw. His back became stiff to the sight of the towering four arm, marble skinned creature adorned in the red armor. Its green eyes bore into the teen with fire. Lloyd knew who it was after being transformed into this general.

Morro.


	30. Game Over

**Chapter 30: Game Over**

He breathed heavily as he glared at the players around him. Heavily through the mask over his mouth from his monstorious, decorated samurai helmet. His bright green eyes burned hatred to strike fear to the players slowly backing away from it. Only one player glared back at him. His four arms twitched as they rested on the four scabbarbs holstered to his waist. Ready to strike.

Lloyd felt his avatar's throat become dry and tried to swallow. The last time he seen Morro was when he beaten him back at the prison. But it was also how the Overlord took control of his avatar to make him a four armed stone warrior. His real body now was brainwashed to help the virus complete his body outside the game. The blonde haired teen gripped his two swords tightly as Morro shouted.

The creature crossed his arms to draw out his four swords and charged. Players charged to him with their weapons charging a different aura and struck the warrior. But a powerful force bounced off of him as their weapons didn't leave a dent in his health. The four-armed warrior chuckled deeply and swung with his four arms. Players flew left and right after each strike, screaming as the blades sliced through them clean. Some shattering instantly as their HP bars drained quickly. Some tried to strike the warrior from behind, but Morro was quick on his heels to swing his beefy arms at them against the canyon walls.

Lloyd grew worried that Morro's avatar was killing players instantly and that they were losing their garrison numbers. Morro had to be stopped, just how was the question. The teen snapped back into reality as the warrior shouted as he turned to him. "Lloyd. . .Garmadon. . ." it said, heavily and stomped over to him. Lloyd shook with nervousness as he braced himself as he swung the swords. In retaliation, he crossed his two swords.

He grunted as the strength from the warrior was strong than he imagined and struggled to push against him. From the corner of his eye, he watched as one of the lower swords thrust toward his chest. He quickly drew one of his swords back to parry the blade back and kept deflecting the others swords as the warrior pushed him back. Lloyd was breathing heavily to try gain from leverage against him as he kept dodging and blocking the four sword. He wondered where his friends were, probably busy with the virus' army.

Lloyd spun on his heels to dodge the swords and landed on one of his knees to arch his back from a blade hitting his head. But he wasn't quick enough to see the boot hitting his chest and flew back to grunt as he hit against the canyon wall. His body was tired, exhausted as he slumped against the ground and tried to pick himself up. The warrior came up to him and kicked him aside to have both weapons far from him. He lift his head to watch Morro kill more players as he advanced toward him. He stretched himself to his weapons to grip them tightly and gasped as Morro towered over him and pressed his boot on his back to pin him.

The teen let out a silent scream as he winced to try and struggle as he couldn't escape. His head was swimming with everything around him that he was failing as a general to leave the game. And now he was going to die in the hands of his enemy. He closed his eyes as the warrior held one of his swords over him. "NOO!" someone shouted to charge for the warrior and teen.

Lloyd felt the weight off his back to open his eyes as he watched Morro turn on his heels. He saw someone rushing to him and jumped. His mace glowed a bright purple aura as he held his shield in front of him and flew toward the large warrior. Lloyd gasped as it was Brad aiding to his rescue, but he fell silent as he heard the warrior snort. The raven haired teen swung his mace to the warrior to have him strafe to the side as he landed, but gasped silently as he failed to see the sword coming toward him to raise his shield and felt the powerful force collide with him and flew back to lay still.

His blood turned to ice. He was frozen to move a muscle to the heroism his friend performed. His childhood friend even. Brad had took the blow for him, but he was worried for him now as he laid limp on the dusty ground. He directed his head to see Morro was occupied with other players and quickly jumped to his feet to rush over to his friend with Gene. He slid to his knees as he reached to Brad and lifted his head off the ground to cradle him closer. He ony heard a whimper come from the raven haired teen. "Br-Brad?" he choked.

Light blue eyes peeked from the teen as he stared at the worried eyes of his friend to crack a small smile. A sigh came from him as he saw his HP bar slowly dying and turned back to the two. "Hey guys," he said, tiredly. "How are we holding up now?"

Tears began to prick their eyes to their smiling friend's face. Not because of him speaking to them, but seeing his HP bar and they didn't have any potions left to revive him. "Brad. . .how can you be so stupid!?" Gene shouted to him. "You know what the consequences are now once you're dead in this world. Why did you do it?"

His smile remained plastered and moved some of his unkempt hair out of his eyes. "Wouldn't you done the same for Lloyd?" he retorted. The ginger choked on his words and bowed his head in shame. It was true to them. A chuckle came from him, but later turned to a horrible cough to stop and catch his breath.

Lloyd stared at his friend in his arms to ponder what to do. They should have time still to find Zane and prevent him from leaving or someone around should have a potion on them. But knowing his state, he was out of time already. "Brad. . .you know I'm going to hate myself forever for this." he said. "Because if we lose, Ninjago is doomed and it'll be my fault. I won't see you again. Just why?"

"I did it, because I have faith in you." Brad replied. He turned his gaze to the battle to watch time slow down around them. Players killing many of the Overlord's army, aiding other players, attacking Morro. But there were players being killed off, some fleeing for good to sigh. "You have the bravery to do everything that most wouldn't. You were the strongest player in the Beta and will the strongest one here to kill the virus. I did it to keep you alive and I know we'll see each other again outside the game." A sigh came from him as he saw his HP bar was drained completely and looked at the sky. He had to comfort them to keep moving and beat the game. "Remember the time we were eleven at that sleepover and I put those fake spiders in your bed to freak you out?"

A choked laugh came from the teens to nod as they remembered that night of pranks. "Yeah I do." Lloyd said to hold him close. "And my revenge was taping you up in your sleeping bag so you would be a worm for the whole day." A chuckle came from Brad as his avatar body lit and shattered into polygonal pieces in Lloyd's arms. All there was now in his place was his shield and mace.

The tears finally escaped from the two as their friend was gone. In the distance, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane bowed their heads for the two after watching everything. Losing their best friend in the conquest for freedom, almost as if it was IRL. Lloyd drew in a deep breath to collect himself to see Gene was still crying to give him a small smile. The ginger saw his smile to give him a watery one to nod with him. "We'll see him again." he said.

"Definitely."

A deafening roar broke their silence to turn to the large stone warrior as he cleared an area of players. He glared at the two teens as part of his mask was broken to reveal his sharp teeth to give them a mocking smirk. Lloyd dried his eyes to glare at the warrior with hatred with Gene as well. Morro, his enemy in the game for revenge, killed his friend and he hated that smirk of his. The teen wasn't sure if Morro was controlling the warrior or not when the virus corrupted him, but he wasn't going to let him win either way.

He glanced to where Brad once laid down to sheath the Sword of Sanctuary to the scabbarb on his back and grabbed Brad's shield. He slipped the arm length shield over his left arm and gripped his golden sword tightly. Gene sheathed his sword and held the raven haired teen's mace tightly. "If we're going to win this war, we're going to do it together." he hissed and charged to the warrior while shouting. Gene followed after him. The large warrior shouted to stomp his way to the teens.

He swung its massive swords at the blone haired teen and Lloyd held his shielded arm to catch all four blades. Lloyd grunted as he struggled against the warrior's strength and heard Gene run behind him to leap off of him and pushed back against the blades to slice at his legs. The ginger hung in the air to grip the handle tightly with both hands as he held it above his head and it glowed a bright purple aura. He shouted as he swung the blunt end to the foe's head to have its helmet broken off his head to reveal pitch black hair that reached its shoulder with a length of green dyed hair on his bangs. Gene landed behind the creature and braced himself as it spun on his heels to swing its swords toward him.

A golden blur rushed in front of him as Lloyd stood in front of the ginger to block the swords again. His anger burned to the warrior to push him back and sliced at his unprotected chest to hear him yell out in pain. He rolled underneath to get behind him to slice at his back quickly and strafed to the side. Gene quickly got to his feet to swing the mace at the back of his knee to make him fall to one knee. The large warrior growled to shout at the two teens to push himself back to his feet and swung his four swords at the two to push them back but they kept parrying his swords.

Lloyd blocked a powerful blow from the warrior's sword to have Brad's shield shatter off his arm, but he quickly drew Morro's old sword out to dual wield against the warrior. His anger was his renewed strength. The blond haired teen parried one of his sword and had his one of his swords glow a bright red aura to slice his lower right arm off to hear him shout out in pain. The warrior's bright green eyes burned with anger to attack the teens more furious to have them dodge the remaining blades until Gene swung his friend's mace at its chest to remove the red armor on its chest and drew out his sword to thrust it into his chest. Morro's old avatar collapsed in pain and struggled to get back to his feet.

"Lloyd, let's finish this!" Gene shouted and cupped his hands together in front of the withering warrior.

Lloyd nodded to rush to the ginger and jumped onto his cupped hands and felt himself being launched higher. The blond haired teen hung in the air as he glared at his enemy's old avatar as he lifted his head to him. "I should've done this when I had the chance!" he shouted to cross the blades of his swords. He shouted as he brought them apart at warrior's neck to land behind him after flipping over him. The warrior was still to move, but he collapsed as his head slid off and shattered into pieces. Lloyd lifted his head to gaze at the Overlord in the distance to glance over his shoulder to see Gene, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane stand by his side to nod. "Time to end this once and for all." he said and charged with his friends running along side him.

Stone warriors blocked their path as they ran to the virus, killing any of the warriors in their path. Creating a path for Lloyd. Time seemed slow to the six teens as they got closer to the virus. Lloyd had a clear path now as his friends occupied the warriors and charged at full sprint as the virus killed any players that challeged him with his sword, shattering instantly. He leaped off the head of a warrior to gain higher leverage to have his sword glow a golden aura and swung his swords to the virus while shouting. The Overlord virus lifted his head to the teen and held his hand out.

A startle gasp came from the teen as the virus grabbed him by the throat to drop his weapons. He struggled to escape as the virus squeezed his throat as if he was choking to breathe. He could feel the virus' sharp nails pierce his neck to drain a little of his HP and he was brought closer to the Overlord's blaring red eyes. He fell limp to his grip and snarl. "You lose, Lloyd Garmadon." the virus said turned to show him the carnage. "Look around you, watch as your freedom drained away for good."

Lloyd lifted his head to feel his heart stop to what he saw. A warrior slashed Kai's chest and he screamed in pain as his avatar shattered on the ground. Jay had a sword pierce through his chest after he was tossed on the ground to scream in agony and shattered to die as well. Cole struggled to push many of the warrior off of him to scream as he was swarmed with multiple stab wounds to shatter in a bright light. Players started running away to retreat, Gene was part of that, but to only get shot down by crossbows and collapsed as their avatars died. Lloyd couldn't spot Zane anywhere, but he hung his head in defeat to everything and everyone around him.

They had lost the war. And it was his fault.

"Everyone, everything around you collapsing from your grip." the Overlord continued. "You wanted freedom, but freedom is gone for you. The only freedom now is death being part of my army. But I won't kill you. I'll leave you here in your own little prison until you decide to die and leave this game for good." He tossed the teen aside like a rag doll and Lloyd rolled on the dusty ground.

Lloyd watched as the virus walked away from him as he and his army finished off any remaining players and moved towards the city. It was the beginning where players entered, it was where the Overlord was going to leave. He wanted to get up and charge after the virus, but remained on the ground to stare at the sky. His friends, all of them, thousands of players were now dead, scattering in Ninjago Online for survival and it was his fault. This world was finished, but the outside world was doomed to the Overlord's wraith and he could do nothing to stop it now.

The blonde haired teen closed his eyes.

GAME OVER.


	31. Logging Out

**Chapter 31: Logging Out**

 _The sunlight was warm and bright across the autumn covered forest. The towering trees surrounded around a teen with long blonde hair with the season turned leaves dappling around him. A breath of serenity came from him as he walked through the forest. Enjoying the season around him. But deep inside, he knew it was all fake. His mind playing tricks on him for being inside the game._

 _A smile was plastered on his face as he walked down the path to venture wherever it lead him to. But next to him were four teenagers his age walking beside him. A knight, samurai, thief, and a cloaked player. He didn't bother listening to their stories as they laughed and teased with one another as he lead them. All five were enjoying each other's company and this freedom of a new world, hoping for a better life to have._

 _Lloyd glanced at the sky to breathe in deeply to suddenly cringe as the air became foul for him to cough. He watched as the warm sky soon become cloudy with thunder rolling in and the wind howling past his ears. He had to raise his arms to defend himself from debris hitting him and moved aside into the woods to seek shelter. But as he couldn't see his path, he collided into something hard to fall back and moved his arms to feel his heart stop to what he saw._

 _A teen with spiky burnet stood tall before him to glare at him. But Lloyd felt scared as the samurai's skin was grey and ashen with blazing purple eyes and watched as he drew out his katana. It made the teen scramble to his feet to run to scream as he almost crashed into Cole who bore the same skin and eyes as Kai with his scythe out. He began to hyperventilate and glanced from both sides as Jay and Zane came into view with their weapons drawn out; all were surrounding him._

 _Lloyd quickly reached behind his back to draw out his sword, but quickly realized that he didn't have any weapon and felt a strong jab in his abdomen to gasp and collapsed to the ground. He took a shaky breat_ _h and lifted his head as he got to one knee. "Why didn't you kill the virus when you had the chance, Kid." Kai hissed, angirly. "You had one job and you blew it."_

 _"Everyone you knew around you is dead and gone, Lloyd." Jay added. "You said you were going to lead us to victory and we weren't victorious. We're dead now and it's your fault."_

 _"You also said that you were afraid of failing us, but I had hope for you that you weren't going to fail." Cole said. "I guess I was wrong now. The Overlord won and has conquered the real Ninjago."_

 _"And now you must live in this prison until the day you die in this game and become one of them." Zane finished. "But we might as well do it so we don't have you in this world anymore."_

 _Lloyd's heart was racing to their words and felt tears pricking his face. They were right about one thing. He failed to fulfill his job to save Ninjago and there was blood on his hands. For every player that died to the Overlord's control. His breath hiked as he watched as his friends slowly advanced closer to him and yelped as they grabbed a hold of him. He struggled to escape from their iron grip and screamed as he gazed into their purple eyes._

* * *

A loud gasp escaped from a teen with blonde hair as he jolt awake. His virtual heart was racing as his NeuroGear was reading his real heart beats to clutch his chest as he tried to take calming breaths. But he couldn't calm down as his dream felt real to scare him. What seemed real now? His dreams or being trapped in a video game for the rest of his life? Both of which were part of his mind, he wasn't sure anymore.

He gazed around the barren landscape of the Corridor of Players to sigh to the silence around him. Weapons laid around the dusty ground, arrows planted within it. Fires burned in areas of the battle that took hold, the battle he failed to lead and get everyone out of the game. Many players, his friends, and even children in the game were now dead and now were being controlled by the virus. The tears escaped to cascade down his face as he blamed himself for this.

"Lloyd?" a quiet voice called to him.

The blonde teen lifted his head and turned his head to the source of the voice. He couldn't believe who he heard to gasp as he watched as someone stagger to him. It was Zane. He quickly rushed over to the A.I to catch him as he collapsed to the ground and seat him on a rock. A large watery smile plastered on his face to see someone still alive with him to pull him into a tight embrace to hear him wince and pulled back to see him more. Zane looked unscathed from everything in the battle, but part of the left side of his face was broken off with wisps of data leaving the wound.

He stared at the A.I more to have his smile turn to a frown and bowed his head in shame. Zane was stunned to move and watched as his body shuddered to hear him weep a little. "Zane. . .I failed." he said, quietly. "I let everyone down and everyone is dead. Kai, Cole, Jay, Brad, and Gene. . .everyone. It's all my fault and I wasn't strong enough to kill the virus." He gazed at his golden sword on the ground to pick it up and threw it across the canyon to shudder more. "The Overlord is gone now. . .everyone I know in this game is now like everyone else outside and I'm trapped here forever. . . I wasn't strong enough and I can't do anything to stop the virus now since he's gone."

A pang of sadness crossed him to feel pity for the boy. This must've been what sorrow felt like then to have the A.I understand human emotions. Pain, a broken heart. This was not what he wanted to see in him though. Zane lifted the teen's head to see the tears in his eyes. "Don't doubt yourself, Lloyd." he said and used his torn cloak to dry his eyes. "You did everything you could to try and save everyone from the game. You are not weak, I've seen that in you. You've overcame over many obstacles thrown at you. Morro, Village of Stiix, even fighting against the Dark Creatures."

Guilt clung to his chest to make him sigh and looked away to brush his comforting hand off of him. Zane may be right, but he knew inside that he failed to fulfill the mission. "It's still my fault though." he said, quietly. "I wasn't ready, strong enough, and now they're all gone. Being mindless zombies to bring the Overlord to the real world and I'm stuck here forever." He pulled himself to his feet and turned his back on the A.I to start walking. Running away, it was what he was known for. "There's nothing now to end the virus, might as well get comfortable to this solitude."

He watched as the teen began to move away from him to furrow his brows to his attitude. Giving up, that wasn't something Zane or Kai, Cole, or Jay would see in him. He was the one who brought them together as a team and he never gave up on them. Seeing him give up on himself was something they wouldn't allow. He glanced at his hands to sigh and stood up. "There is a way, I know it." he said. Lloyd stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder to his statement.

Zane held both hands and brought them down to open the games console to have three keyboards in front of him. His dark blue eyes glanced upward to see Lloyd walked back over to him curiously and turned back to the keyboards to draw in a deep breath. He slowly began to type on them. "I'm going to get you out of this so that you may defeat the virus once and for all and upload the antivirus protocol into your game cartridge." he continued. He now understood what guilt felt like now. "It's going to take everything I have in me left for you."

Lloyd had had play that statement back in his mind to wonder what he meant. But realization caught him as the A.I began to type faster to be surrounded in a dome. Zane was going to hack the game to enable him to leave, but it meant one thing that he had to do in order for it to work. "Zane, don't!" he cried out to rush over to him, but the dome bounced him back. He picked himself up to rush back to him. "Zane, no. You can't do this. What about your wish to experience a real life outside of the game like how we promised you? You can't kill yourself for the sake of my freedom. It's not fair!" The A.I ignored him to have a white light surround him and was frozen to move.

A guilty smile crossed the platnimun blonde teen's face to see the tears in his eyes. A single tear fell down his cheek. "Being with you and the others was enough experience for me to be like human, Lloyd." he admitted to start glowing blue brightly. "Being a teammate, enjoying our adventures, I couldn't have asked for more. Take care, Lloyd. Do everything you can to win this war." The tears continued to fall down his face as he struggled to move from the unknown force holding him. The white light glowed more bright around to him to have him close his eyes to the intensity and felt his mind being stretched from his avatar body.

Everything became black around him.

* * *

A quiet beeping sound was heard. A quiet moan escaped. The air had a smell to alert his olfactory sensors to travel down his throat. His eyes slowly slid open to have light pierce him and immediately shut them as it burned. The pain subsided and he tried again slowly to cringe to the light and gazed at a grid pattern. . .ceiling. A ceiling. . .white and bright from the light.

He glanced to his right to see a metallic device with a green line on the screen, ascending or decreasing to a beat. His heart beat. Another groan escaped from his underused lips to blink more and glanced around to see thin cords from the device attached to his body; electro pads to stimulate muscle contraction. Tubes connected to a bag hung around him and were attached to his body as he laid on a gel layer bed to form around his body to keep his blood circulated.

The teen finally fought off the pain he had formed to his body and glanced at his arms to think. A twitch came from his hand and concentrated more to feel his arm lifting. To his own control, not to an avatar body. He drew in a deep breath to cough out as his throat burned to the sweet taste of oxygen he missed when being trapped. He concentrated more on his body and felt himself being lifted by his own body to sit up on his bed and reached to his face and removed the dome helmet.

Long, unkempt blonde hair fell down to Lloyd's shoulders to gaze at his reflection on the dome face piece. He could his face looked frail as well with his arms. He moved the robe he wore from his chest to see some of his ribs as he looked skinny and shrunk. He turned back to his NeuroGear to open the back and pulled out a game cartridge. "Z. . .Za. . .ne." he murmurred quietly with his throat burning as he tried to use his voice. His real voice too. Lloyd couldn't believe it, he was out of the game.

He logged out finally for many months of being trapped within.

The sound of the door opening alerted him to slowly turn to the door to have his emerald green eyes widen. A plastic tray fell to the floor from the lose of grip on it from pure shock and joy. In front of the teen stood two teenagers that he wished to see and be with for a long time being trapped inside the game as they saw him awake. Laurie and Lucas stood still with quivering heart beats and soon teary eyes to what they saw before them. It was a miracle to them now.

Immediately, the two rushed over to his bedside and pulled him into tight embraces. The violent movement stunned the teen and felt himself being squeezed to death by their strong hugs. He could feel their bodies shudder as they cried. Tears began to form in his eyes to this and smiled softly as he missed human affections and actual feeling with his real body. Seeing his sister and cousin, soon his parents, would be a wonderful gift for him. But he glanced at his game cartridge and remembered he had a mission still.

"Cy...Cyr...rus"


	32. Going To End This

**Chapter 32:** **Going To End This**

He stared at the game cartridge in his hand to sigh to himself and carefully nudged his mother off of him. But she immediately returned to him to sigh to that as well. He was being smothered though. He understood she missed him, and he missed her as well, for being trapped inside a game for months. This was too much to say for the least and needed to breathe. He had one thing on his mind that had to be resolved.

It's been a couple days since he escaped from the cursed game and he was already out of the hospital. He surprised the hospital staff when they found him awake and was making a fast recovery. But he still felt weak for being immobile to lose muscle mass. But Lloyd began to look like himself again however; his long hair was the same still and needed a trim, he began to regain some weight that he lost, and his voice was returning normal. He hoped soon though that he began to be a normal teen.

But since he's been out and recovering, the Overlord was still on his mind. He couldn't sleep for days since he's been sleeping for months, anxious about the virus that was somewhere loose. Or even his still trapped friends now wandering aimlessly to aide the virus with his body. He wasn't sure if the virus was in its body or not, it's been quiet for him. Day and night, he's been begging to see Cyrus Borg, his father refused to see that man since his son had been trapped by their game until they finally gave in.

He now sat across from Cyrus, Neuro, and P.I.X.A.L with his family behind him and placed his game cartridge on his desk.

The wheelchair bound man took the game and studied it. A frown formed on his face though as a shroud of pity clouded his eyes. It wasn't just a copy of his game he made, it was something more. "Zane sacrificed himself in order for you to leave the game by doing everything he could," he sighed to glance at his assistant as she looked away, sorrowful. "All that remains of him is this game cartridge that houses the antivirus he was suppose to use." Lloyd just nodded without saying a word.

"A noble sacrifice indeed," Neuro agreed. "Doctor Julien would've been proud of his son for sure of that."

Lloyd sighed. "He did everything for me and I didn't want him to do this though." He carefully pushed himself out of his chair to get to his feet, tiredly and weak and walked over to the window to stare at the setting sun. "I begged him not to as I made a promise for him and now he's gone. I have a final mission now and that's to find the virus and kill it for good with that game."

Dark eyes glanced at his son to the words. Words he didn't want to hear. Even at his condition. Garmadon couldn't allow that from his son. Being trapped for almost a year in a video game was bad enough and nearly getting himself killed, but hearing this was something he didn't want from him. He was thankful to see him awake and moving for the most part, but he couldn't bear the mind of him still playing a game that had him trapped in it.

The aged man stood from his chair and walked over to his son to rest his hand on his shoulder. But instead of comforting, he squeezed it a bit hard and had him turned to face him. He only gave him a light glare. "I forbid you to do anything with this man now, Lloyd." he grumbled. "It's bad enough that the heir of this company was trapped in a game from a rival company, but I will not allow you to do anything else with this man. Which is why I never wanted to see him again when you woke up or let you see him."

His words struck down on the teen rather harsh to make him glare at his father. He didn't know the struggles and pain he endured in the game; the loss of his friends and being almost killed by Morro. Snorting, the teen brushed his father's grip off of him. "You don't know what's like in a virtual world where everything around you felt so real." he retorted to walk to the desk and snatched the cartridge from Cyrus. He held it in front of his father. "Everything of a databank, server, and today's technology made this game possible to be real. But in this also had dark secrets and enemies that want you dead."

He took a deep breath to collect himself and calmly handed the man back the game. He turned back to his father's hard stare. "Many things happened to me in that world," he continued. "I've made friends, enemies, I almost destroyed the virus, but I failed. I need to fulfill this role because if the virus outside here had completed his body, it's trouble in the real Ninjago and not in this game."

"And I'm not allowing this." Garmadon barked. "You're in the real world now, not in some fantasy game where swords and creatures roam the lands. This virus hasn't made himself present if you claim for him to leave the game. You need to understand and grow up now that what you saw isn't possibly existant. No way if a virus can contain a body if it's still in a game."

"I've seen things, dad!" Lloyd shouted. "Zane was an A.I that allowed us to see the outside world and we saw his body being made. This is why I'm out of the game, so I can finally kill off this thing and ensure it doesn't hurt anyone." He turned on his heels to pace for a bit. "Bad enough that you won't understand, but in the game I've dealt with people that wanted me dead such as Morro and-"

"Wait. . ." Wu said, calmly. The blonde haired teen turned to his uncle curiously as he finally spoke up from their arguing. Usually his uncle was the voice of reason. The bearded man glanced at his nephew to pull himself up and walked over to him. "You said Morro, right? Morro Konzu?" Lloyd nodded. "I see, so he was in the game as well."

Lloyd had to wonder then what his parents and uncle and aunt know that he doesn't. In the game, Morro was going to use him as leverage for his parents because from past agressions. "Who is exactly Morro and what did both of our grandfathers have against each other?" he pried. "He was going to use me as bargain to make you guys lose your partnership in the company for his grandfather."

Sighing, Garmadon took a seat next to his younger brother and turned to his son. Maybe his son was right about having enemies in a virtual world. "Cornelius Konzu was your grandfather's first partner to form Ninjago City Tower." he began. "But with every partnership, there are dark secrets from one person. Morro's grandfather had something of that." Intrigued, Lloyd sat down to hear more. "Cornelius was a noble man back then, powerful poliction you would say. But during the formation of the company, he was a man of greed. He wanted nothing but power and money to rule Ninjago City with an iron fist, but your grandfather woudn't allowed it. Your grandfather was more wise than he was and kicked him out of the company before Cornelius invoked his final plan. To kill your grandfather."

Lloyd could only blink. Morro's grandfather was a tyrant man. Morro was given lies to attack him and his family then. "By then, your grandfather had a new partner, Tyrion Loa, your aunt's father." Garmadon continued. "Since his disappearence, no one knew where Cornelius went until Morro made himself present and tried to seek revenge for his grandfather. But it made him a laughing stock to hide away. So I guess he made himself present again once he found you in the game."

The teen had to nod. The things that Morro had done to him, hunting him down still haunted him. "He had players turned against me." he admitted. "The best way for people to say our family ruined his was to let younger people know because they don't know of the past." He took a deep breath to push himself to his feet and started heading for the elevator. He was getting out of topic, he had a mission to finish. "I'm going to end this virus now whether you like it or not."

The man jumped to his feet to grab his son's arm to have him turn to face him. Lloyd had to wince as his father had a strong grip on his arm. "I've told you once and I won't say it again," Garmadon grumbled. "You're in the real world and don't need to live in a fantasy. You're not going to do anything else now if this virus doesn't exist. Even if he did, you don't even know where to find it. Just listen to me like the son you are to me." He released his grip to receive a glare from him.

"Mr. Garmadon," Cyrus spoke up to wheel himself away from his desk and head toward the man. "I believe your son is right. The Overlord Virus was part of a project of ours for our game but we had to decommission it. But it got into the game and hence why he and other players were trapped in the game for months." He took a deep breath. "Truth be told though, we actually know where the virus is. He's actually in the building here. Take a look." He pulled out a remote and clicked it toward the large monitor screen.

He studied what the man wanted to show to raise a brow. The Overlord was in Borg Industries? All he remember was that the virus' body was in a sarcophagus with the defeated players surrounding it since the virus was controlling their bodies. He saw it, everyone has. The blonde haired teen watched at the screen shifted to reveal an open area from an air duct and realized the man was right. People in hospital gowns and NeuroGear helmets surrounded a glass sarcophagus with a dark silhouette of a body inside it. The Overlord's body in the real world.

Garmadon studied the scene around to turn and glared at the man. Cyrus jumped a bit to his dark eyes. "So you're the one who's been kidnapping those missing patients." he barked. "Not only you're kidnapping them, you're also creating an abomination with these people."

The man had to scoot back to his tone of accusation. Perhaps the man was viewing it differently. "Please Mr. Garmadon," the man begged, quietly. "It's not what it appears. We're not doing anything to create this. The virus has gone rogue and is manipulating these people."

"Lies! Full of lies." Garmadon shouted. "These people are in your building, you had a hand in this. And I swear, as soon as I leave this office, I'm alerting the authorities of the disappearces and it'll be your head."

Lloyd gasped a little to what his father was going to do. This was an innocent man he was accusing and he had no part of their kidnapping. The Overlord was brainwashing them to do his bidding. He quickly stood in front of the man to shield him. "Dad, listen to yourself." he snarled. "He didn't do anything. The virus is the one taking these people, not him or Neuro."

"Don't protect this man, Lloyd." his father snapped. "If the people are in his building, then this has to be his bidding. He has had you and thousands of people trapped in a video game. This man deserves to see justice and I will make sure that happens." He stormed to the elevator and call for it.

Lloyd began to panic. The virus was in the building. But an innocent man was going to face trials for something he didn't commit. He didn't want Cyrus' business to collapse with pressure. He had to do something. Not even his uncle and mother couldn't convince his father to stop and think this through. Something glinted from the corner of his eye to see it was the game cartridge with Zane's binary codes in it to pick it up and glanced at the elevator. He nodded.

He took a deep breath to sprint to the elevators as the doors open to grab his father by his coat and felt adrenaline course his veins to pull him away and entered. He quickled hit the button to the Overlord's level and glanced at his father as he picked himself up. "I'm sorry, dad." he said, quietly. "I can't let you do this to an innocent man. I'm ending this." The doors closed and he felt the elevator descend. He quickly reached into the junction box to the elevator and pulled out a handful of wires, hoping this would ensure the elevator couldn't be called back up. He closed his eyes to transcend as he left, wondering how he could finish the virus for good.

But in the game, he never gave up hope for his friend and they never gave up on him. He was going to destroy the virus and not back down from a fight.


	33. Unexpected Reunions

**Chapter 33: Unexpected Reunion**

His heart was pounding nervously as he catiously made his way through the lower levels of the building. The halls gave him an eerily feeling as the lights were out of the floor to have darkness around him. Made him think of a dark corridor in a dungeon of Ninjago Online. Or even Morro's fortress when he was prisoner to him. Lloyd shook the thought out of his head to focus as he had a goal. To find the Overlord and use the cartridge to destroy the virus.

Lloyd quietly made his way through the dark hallways and carefully kept an eye out for anything that could have him captured. If the Overlord had manipulated players' brainwaves to control them, the chances of the virus using some to patrol the area were high to the teen. Everything around him was becoming like the game. And the best way to him was to keep an eye on his surroundings and be vigilant to defend himself. Maybe his father was right for one thing, bring yourself back to the real world and not live in a fantasy. But Lloyd will have to do that part later once he ended the virus' reign.

The sound of barefeet padding in front of him made the teen stop as someone was coming. He may not see who was coming from the darkness, but it was a patrol heading in his direction. Glancing at his surroundings with his vision now accustomed to the darkness, Lloyd quickly ducked into a vacant room and held his breath as the soft sounds grew closer. Like his encounter with Chamille in the game, he remained quiet until the patrol kept walking by and left to sigh and carefully peeked out to see if the area was cleared. He could see two of the patients with their NeuroGears on their heads and had an idea to maybe finding the virus' location. Perhaps following them would lead him to the location.

Lloyd took a step to follow them, but a muffled shriek came from him as something clasped over his mouth was dragged back into the room.

His heart began to pound and he started to struggle against his assailant or assailants as he felt someone grab his limbs. In the darkness, he could see two shadowy figures in front of him detaining him with a third behind him to keep their hand over his mouth. "Take it easy, Kid." a familiar voice spoke quietly. "We don't want to hurt our friend after all."

He immediately stopped to the one who spoke and felt the hand off his mouth. That voice, it couldn't be. The door was closed and the lights flickered on to have the teen cringe to the light and carefully allowed them adjust. His emerald eyes grew wide with surprise and joy to whom he saw. Three teens around his age stood before him. A teen with long, unkempt raven hair with bangs that grew over his amber eyes with thick muscles showing from his tank top. One with messy burnet hair that looked like it was spiked up from some hair gel with a notch in his left eyebrow. And the last was a bit shorter than the others but he had auburn hair with bright hazel eyes, but the vertical scar on his right eyebrow distinguished him from the others. Lloyd couldn't believe it.

Kai. Cole. And Jay. His friends were out of the game and not under the control of the virus.

"Guys!" he shouted with pure joy to jump to his feet and pulled them into a tight embrace. He felt their arms wrap around him to have all four embrace in a bear hug. It was a miracle. But a question bothered him though. The hug lasted for a minute and all four pulled away to have Lloyd study them; looked the same as their Ninjago Online avatars. "How did you get out of the game and not be controlled like the others? I watched you all get killed. And how did you know to come here?"

"Hey, we can ask you the same thing, Pipsqueak." Jay mused. "But... we don't know exactly. We were killed, yes. But in the end, we woke up and got out of the game. What about you though? Not like you were killed off as well and found yourself free from the game and all."

"You missed the crucial detail, Jay." Cole snapped a bit. "Zane told us to come here. We were in this. . .field of wheat in the game watching a progress bar fill out as the other players that were killed disappeared. We figured that once each player's bar filled, the virus had control of them. As we waited, we get a message from Zane and told us to meet you here. So seeing you here, Zane must've done something to get us out of the game."

The teen nodded as it was true to have them frown. He held out the game cartridge that held the A.I's antivirus data. They looked at Lloyd confused to why he had a copy of the game out. "Zane used everything he had in him to hack the console and enabled me to leave as well as you guys." he said, sournfully. "But in the end, it ended his life and I begged him to not do this as we made a promise to him that we'll all leave the game together with him in a body. We failed him."

They remained quiet to his confession about the A.I that fought along side them to bow their heads. It struck them hard in their hearts as it was true. They made a promise that they would show him a new world and feel what it's like being a teen with them. Now their promise was broken. Cole glanced at the silent sobbing teen to walk over to him to close his hands over the cartridge tightly to look at him in the eyes with renewed determination. "And let's not fail him again." he said, confidently. "We're going to end this for good with you as our leader again. We may have lost the battle in the game, but the final boss ends today."

Lloyd had to lift his head to wipe his redden eyes to see them nod with fire in their eyes. In the game, they all had that same personality that made them, them. And now outside in the game, they still had it. They were a team from the beginning to the end. He nodded to agree with the raven haired teen to reach behind his back to pull out an imaginary sword as if he was still in the game. He watched them done the same to smirk. "Let's move out." He lead the way.


	34. The Final Boss

**Chapter 34: The Final Boss**

Their backs were pressed tightly against a long wooden crate and cautiously peered over to observe. Thousands of players that were brainwashed meandering around the large open area. Some worked on the computer terminals on the Overlord's control while some worked on prepping machines around them. But in the far back of the room they could see the glass top sarcophagus of the Overlord's body inside to quickly duck down as someone walked past. They knew this was bad. Four players that were trapped in a video game against players that were still trapped inside their heads.

"What's the plan then?" Jay whispered to not alert their presence. He carefully peeked again to see if there was something they could do. "Because it's us four against the Overlord's army. I don't know what's worse, this? Or when we were being hunted down at Morro's fortress? It could go either way I guess."

Lloyd had to roll his eyes to the auburn and carefully scouted out a plan. He glanced at the cartridge in his hand and studied a player on a computer terminal. He noticed his ethernet cable was hooked to the monitor and had an idea then. If he could get closer to him, he could swap the cartridges and that should be able to hack the virus with the antivirus. But it felt risky to him.

He glanced at the sarcophagus to noticed a hard drive was attached to the side with a copy of the game on it. The Overlord's copy of the game to transfer him to his body. It was even unguarded as well and he could remotely destroy the virus than risk a player's life. "I have to get to the body." he said, quietly. "You guys cause a distraction to lure the people away so I can get closer. They're like zombies at this point so they must be attracted to anything near them."

They glanced at each other if they had second thoughts but shrugged as he was right. If this was the only option they had, they had to go with him. Lloyd took a deep breath and quickly and quietly crept away to hide and made his way around. "So how should we do this?" Jay wondered. "Pull the fire alarm or something?"

"That wouldn't work. They'll just stand still and not follow fire safety." Cole stated. "We can try-"

"Move it, let's go!" a voice boomed to have the three turn pale and cautiously peeked. Lloyd stopped to feel his heart racing to the haunting voice and cautiously peeked as well. A man in a black suit calmly walked around the large area with his long raven hair reaching his shoulders. Lloyd felt his heart beating harder against his ribs as he saw the green dye streak down his bangs; Morro. The man glanced at the trapped players to scowl. "Hurry, this should've been done hours ago. The Overlord grows impatient the more we don't move any quicker. He is finally coming to this world and will reign control of this land."

Lloyd quickly ducked into cover to try and calm his quivering breath to focus. He had to focus. Destroying the Overlord was his mission, not let Morro get to him from fear. He continued to move quietly to reach for his objective. Over at his friends, the three ducked under their cover to look at each other worriedly. The man they watched get transformed into the four armed monster was out of the game as they were. He must've found a way to leave as they had or he made a deal with the Overlord to be out of the game and be his lapdog. Either way, this was trouble to them and Lloyd.

"Can this get any worse?" Kai asked, worried. "Morro's out as well and he's not like the others. Looks like he's with the Overlord then, for the blood feud for Lloyd and his family."

"We can't let him see Lloyd then." Jay added. "If they see each other, Morro will finally murder him for the revenge."

"Which is why we have to act now and lure him and the others away from Lloyd to complete the mission." Cole finished to glance around his surroundings to see a fire extinguisher on the wall. "I think I got an idea now. We may not be our avatars, but we can always improvise." He grabbed it off the foundation.

Morro glanced around his surroundings while overseering the operation of the Overlord's body. They were working faster at his command now which he felt humble about. Unaware of the blonde haired teen making way to the body. He stopped as he heard someone whistle to his direction to spin on his heels to have his eyes widen to what he saw. Cole smirked as he crossed his arms. "Missed us, Morro?" he said. "Been a long time since we crossed paths."

The man couldn't believe what he saw before his very eyes. Three familiar players that fought for the brat he tried so hard to capture in the game. They stood before him now, out of the game like him. "That's impossible." he gasped. "How?"

"Like you, we have our ways." Jay said.

The man growled to see the players glance up to his anger. "Get them," he bellowed. "Don't let them get near to the Overlord!" Players moved in unison to be in synced with one another and charged to the three teens. Cole knew they would do it and quickly pulled out the fire extinguisher to pull the trigger to release the contents around them and surround them in a thick cloud to have players stumble into one another. Morro grumbled to reach into his suit jacket to pull out a collapsable baton stick to flick his wrist to have it straight and sturdy. "I always have to fight my own fights then." He charged to the three.

Lloyd cautiously peeked as he watched Morro engage against his friends as they tried to defend themselves against the man and the controlled players. But this was his chance now. His friends were distracting them for him to reach the Overlord's body. This was it then. The teen drew in a deep breath and quickly rushed across the clearing to finally reach the sarcophagus.

He quickly glanced at the hard drive where the game was attached to and tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge. He tried again to grip it tightly and grunted as he tried to pry it but it still remained in place. Lloyd huffed as it was pointless and studied the case to try and think of another solution to deliver the antivirus to the virus. But he couldn't see anywhere else he could fulfill the mission. His breath hitched as he heard something cocked loudly and carefully turned to have his breath remained in his throat.

Morro stood behind the teen with a gun aimed toward him.

"You just never give up, can you?" the raven haired man said to waver his pistol to have Lloyd slowly back away from the Overlord. Lloyd glanced past him to see his friends were on their knees, captured by the controlled players; beatened. "I don't know how, even with them, you all managed to escaped from the game. But stay away from the Overlord."

Lloyd's heart was racing as the man kept the gun aimed toward his direction. He had to wonder if this was the final act that Morro wanted for revenge. Many times in the game never worked. But in real life, this may be it. "Morro," he said, scared. "It doesn't have to be like this. I know what happened to our grandfathers and if you hear me out, we don't have to repeat the past."

"Shut up!" Morro barked. "I know what my grandfather did and who he was. A powerful man doing everything to build Ninjago City with your fool of a grandfather. Your grandfather was soft hearted while mine was tough as steel and he had everything under control to run the city to his leadership. Your grandfather wanted mine out of the picture so he could run the city with his pettiness and that left him a poor man to have fire in his heart. He never got his revenge and I will finally make sure I fulfill his wish and get rid of the heirs of his company. Starting with you."

"Your grandfather was the one who wanted nothing but money and power!" Lloyd retorted, trying to sound malice. "He was a thief and almost killed my grandfather to run the company. That is why he was kicked out. My grandfather had every reason to remove him from the company and killing me won't make his final wish come true. It'll make you a murderer."

A chuckle escaped from the man to smirk to the teen as he stood nervously. He thought it was petty as well when he tried to out talk him about their grandfathers. But he wasn't listening, he had other things to attend to. "I don't care." he said. "My grandfather said I was always destined to run the company. I shall make that happen now then." He pulled the hammer of the gun back to aim for his chest.

"NO!" Kai shouted to remove his captors off of him to charge at Morro and jumped onto his back. The two wrestled as Morro tried to remove the teen off of him as they moved away from Lloyd. Cole and Jay finally broke free from their captors and tried to push them back as they wanted to help Morro. Kai finally dislodge the gun from the man's hand and kicked it away from them and quickly put him in a headlock and resisted his struggling. "Lloyd, now!"

The teen finally shook free from his shock and quickly rushed to the sarcophagus. He saw the glass top was glowing and saw movement happening to realize something monstrious was coming. The Overlord was coming to life. And they were running out of time if he didn't deliver the antivirus soon. Inserting it into the hard drive was out of the question. There had to be another way. It was a virus, there always had to be a way to remove a virus. Something occurred to the teen as he saw the body move.

Lloyd spotted a fire axe attached near a fire exit to quickly remove it from the case to rush back to the sarcophagus. He struck the glass care to have cracks form and struck it again to have a hole form to reveal the virus' purple chest to toss aside and hopped onto the case. His heart was racing as he gazed at the body and glanced at the cartridge in his hand. He drew in a deep breath and held it above his head. This was it.

Dark red eyes shot open to glare at the teen in front of him to have Lloyd stop in his tracks to feel his limbs lock up. A hand shot out of the glass top to wrap itself around the teen's throat to make the teen gasp. The Overlord broke the remaining glass off to stand and held the teen high like he done in the game to make him struggle from his grip. But the virus huffed as it was futile. Lloyd couldn't believe it, the virus finally got his body and was alive.

Morro smirked to laugh as the virus was alive. But his laugh was cut short as Kai gave his throat a squeeze to make him struggle for air. The dark red eyes glared at the teen in his grip to lower him to face him to study him. Lloyd even studied him to see he had the same features as his avatar body did in the game. It was like the game again, the Overlord had him in his grip and he failed again.

"You again. . ." the virus said, darkly. "How did you escape from your prison without becoming one of my slaves?" He studied him more to snort. "No matter. I'm alive now and I'll just kill you off then since you escaped from death in my prison. What do you have to say, Lloyd Garmadon?"

Lloyd struggled to breathe as the virus gave his throat a squeeze to give him a glare. He glanced around the body to notice he had cuts on his limbs and abdomen from when he broke the glass. And from the wounds, he saw his body was leaking purple-like blood with wisps of data as well; almost reminded him of Zane when he was dying. The virus was still a virus with data and binary codes of a robotic body. That was his body, not human, but robotic. An android.

The blonde haired teen glanced at his hand to see he still have the cartridge of the antivirus in his grip and focused his eyes on the gash on the virus' abdomen. Lloyd was a gamer and he wasn't going to let fear get the best of him defeating the final boss. "You should know the simple thing of gaming." he gargled to breathe. "When I play video games, I play until the very end when I defeat the final boss." He shouted to thrust the cartridge into the virus' gash to make the Overlord yelp in pain and released his hold on the teen.

Lloyd winced after landing on his back to pick himself up and turned to the virus. He hoped this worked. The virus grumbled to hold his abdomen and plucked the game cartridge from his wound to toss it aside to chuckle. Lloyd couldn't believe it that it didn't work, he had failed again. The android climbed out of his sarcophagus to walk over to the teen to chuckle more and grabbed the fire axe from the floor to stand above the teen and gave him smirk to reveal his sharp teeth to raise the axe above him. Lloyd bowed his head away as he couldn't take the failure anymore.

The Overlord kept the axe above his head to laugh more, but quickly became quiet to gasp and felt his grip loosen on the axe. Lloyd lifted his head after hearing the axe fall to have his emerald eyes widen to what he saw. The Overlord's wound glowed a bright white aura to make the virus stagger on his balance and slowly spread in his body to have his body glow white. Lloyd couldn't believe it, Zane's antivirus was attacking the virus.

A cry of pain and help came from the virus as he crumpled to his knees and tried to remove the antivirus from him as it spread more on him. Morro stood in shock to what he was witnessing and tried to struggle more from Kai's grip to be released but the spiky haired burnet wouldn't budge. He had to help the virus but couldn't in his predicament. The white aura finally reached the Overlord's head to scream as he glowed more brightly to make everyone shield their eyes until they heard an explosion of electricity and turned to what they saw.

Nothing stood in the Overlord's previous place, the Overlord was finally defeated.

Game Over.

A sigh of relief came from the teen as it was finally over. It was finally over now. He glanced around to his friends and saw that Morro was gone, most likely he had escaped at the flash, but it didn't matter to him at the moment. Kai came over to the blonde haired teen to offer him his hand which he took and pulled him to his feet to glance around for Morro. But he sighed as he got out from his grip. "Sorry, Kid." he grumbled. "He got away when he had the chance."

"But that doesn't matter though." Jay chirped as he rushed over to the two with Cole behind. "We did it! We finally beaten the game! The Overlord is finally gone!"

"We can see that, Jay." Cole said to glance around to the frozen players around them. "But what about them though? The Overlord is gone, but how are they going to get out?" Lloyd had to glance at them worried for he was right. The virus was finally defeated, but how long before the controlled players can finally log off from the game.

A groan could be heard from one of the controlled players to watch movement from the nearest players as they reached to their NeuroGear helmet and removed it. Long burnet hair fell down to the shoulders of a male player to blink in the sudden light and gaze around in his new enviroment. A puzzled look played on his face to gaze around as more and more players removed their game helmets to look at each other confused. "Wh-What happened?" he said, confused. "Are we. . .finally free the game? The Overlord is finally killed off?"

All Lloyd could do was nod to reply to hear hush murmurs from everyone. This seemed too much for them to believe. "Hey, it's Lloyd and his guild from the battle!" one player acknowledged. "They did it! They defeated the Overlord Virus! They're heroes."

It was quiet for a couple seconds but soon the entire area was filled with an uproar of cheers to be free from the game and cheer towards Lloyd and his friends. A smile crossed the blonde's face to the cheers for him to turn to his friends to see their smiles on him. It was like when he made a legion back in the game to fight against the virus. And now it was finally accomplished. He couldn't believe it. He beaten the game, he had done it.

No, they all done. Kai, Jay, Cole, him, and even Zane.


	35. Heart Warming Ending

**Hello readers, my name is Packerfan95 and I'm sad to say that this is the end of Ninjago Online. But that doesnt mean I'll stop writing more stories for I have got plenty of more ideas to come and am currently on working on one at the moment. But it is actually a new hero story I'm working and I may even work on a Ninjago Online sequel as well. But I don't know when that'll be. But enough delay, thank you so much for staying here on the story and enjoy the final chapter. Thank you.**

* * *

 **Chapter 35: Heart Warming Ending**

"People are in tears of joy and celebration as the once trapped players of Ninjago Online are finally waking up from their six month entrapment in the virtual video game." Gayle Gossip reported on the six o'clock news channel. "A few months ago, what was suppose to be a boss for the game from Cyrus Borg and Neuro Hisoko, breached in the game's servers and took control of the game in its own image. Which had cause thousands of players to become trapped in the game, leaving the users hospitalized with worried family members."

"But finally a couple days ago, the virus has been reported to be finally destroyed from the game and servers and the once trapped players were able to log off the game for good." she continued. "Many of the families of younger players wanted to file charges against Borg Industries for the incident, but many of the trapped players actually begged them to go against the idea for they say it was 'the best gaming experience they have witness, despite being trapped by the virus'. Quite a story if you tell me."

Emerald green eyes drifted away from the television that hung on the corner of the wall to turn them to his friends to smile softly. From those couple days after the virus was destroyed, his friends Brad and Gene checked out of the hospital as well with the many players. And now he, Brad, and Gene were at Buddy's Pizza Place to finally receive that pepperoni pizza like he had promised them from the beginning of the game launch. But it wasn't just the three of them, but Kai, Cole, and Jay were with them as well; enjoying each other's company. The blonde haired teen couldn't help but smile to himself as this was real now to him. Being out of the game, eating real food, and interacting with real people than virtual avatars and food. It made them all feel human again. But the thought of Morro escaping after the virus was on his mind, but he knew the man wouldn't show himself for some time now.

A sigh came from the teen as he didn't feel like listening to his friends talk to one another of their adventures in Ninjago Online and grabbed himself another slice of the pizza. For he knew he had most adventures with Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane. But with the six of them together, it felt unfair to him that one person was missing out. That being Zane. With the A.I that sacrificed himself to let Lloyd, Kai, Cole, and Jay out of the game to finish the virus, it felt unfair that he didn't get out of the game with them. Now he couldn't even have his father's company make a body for him to have.

Lloyd finally shook the thought away to let the others know of his worries and turned his attention as Jay was explaining his tale when being a lone player. "So when I finally escaped from my cell at Nadakhan's fortress, I had to sneak away from the dungeon, but I didn't think of a guard was on duty and soon the entire guild was hunting for me." Jay explained, using his hands as details to what he had done. "My problem was that I came across a player named Flint and he drew a knife on me to try and kill me, but I actually unarmed him to take his knife and stab him to buy me some time and found myself in their treasure room. And in that room was where I found the rare metal I needed to make my homemade taser, which Kai and Lloyd were a victim of along with Tox, and that's where I also gotten my spear because they already took my sword."

"So after I gotten my spear," he continued. "it felt great in my hands like it was made for me. But that's where I was cornered by Nadakhan and fought against him, because it's my life or else. But after I beaten him, I quickly noticed a teleport pad in the treasure room like the one at Morro's hideout and used it to escape. Since then, I've had the three million bounty on my head from him. I was just glad to be alive and meet you guys."

A smile played on Lloyd's face to the tale, it sounded like it was an scary adventure for the auburn. But he had proved himself that he could survive in the most tense situations. "I must say, that sounded like an intense story." a female voice presented herself to make the teen jump and glance over his shoulder. His eyes went wide to the sight of P.I.X.A.L as she stood behind them and wondered what she was doing out of Borg Industries. Normally she never left the building. "And it sounded like it was quite the adventure when being trapped in the game."

The table turned to the android to glance at her quizzically. It seemed odd to see Cyrus' assistant out in public. And how did she know where they were even? "Is there something you need, P.I.X.A.L?" Lloyd asked. "Not usual to see you out of Borg's."

"Indeed," the android replied to glance around her surroundings. Lloyd had wonder if she was taking everything in for her databanks to know where she was at. "So this must be the place where they call it a pizza parlor. Seems interesting. But that's besides the point, I've come in search for you all."

"Really?" Kai wondered. "What for?"

"I'm not certain of the reason, but Cyrus Borg has requested your presence at his office in Borg Tower, Lloyd, Kai, Cole, and Jay. He says it's urgent."

An urgent request from creator of Borg Industries? This seemed odd for him to invite a couple players of his game to come to his company. Probably a thank you gift for killing the virus. "All right, we'll follow you then." Lloyd said to pull himself from his seat. "Gene, Brad, want to tag along?"

"Nah, you go ahead." Brad said to pull himself up and grabbed the pizza box. "We got to head back home and take care of some stuff. Like get back into school since we missed a couple months. That stuff and all. Text us when you're done." He and Gene said their goodbyes and left the restaurant.

"Now then," P.I.X.A.L said. "Let's head back to Borg Industries."

* * *

The glass doors slid open to the arrival of four teens and P.I.X.A.L to enter into the tower's large lobby. Lloyd, who had been in the lobby, never took in the interior design when he had had to see Cyrus immediately to give them the cartridge of Zane. Now that he wasn't rushing himself to see the man, he could study everything around him to smile at his surroundings. A two level lobby with interior landscaping of small trees with water cascading down into the fountains. The walls and ceilings were made of glass to allow natural lighting in the lobby. All around him was scerenity to him and glanced over his shoulder to see his friends glancing around as well.

P.I.X.A.L lead the group up to the second level of the lobby to the set of elevators and entered the first one that opened and felt it ascend. Something alerted her to turn her attention to the glass tablet on her hip and glanced at her message from Cyrus to blink. She quickly composed herself and turned her attention to the teens as they gazed at the view they were recieving. "On a change of plans, Mr. Borg requests your audience in our science engineering floor which is only a few floors from where we are." she said and typed on the console to cause the elevator to stop at the floor she requested. The doors open and she motioned the four to exit. "You'll find Mr. Borg at the end of the hall, I must leave as he sent me to prepare accomendations. Goodbye." The doors closed on her as she left the four teens.

Lloyd glanced at everyone to see them shrug and walked down the hall to glance around. From the other side of where they were, they watched Borg employees meander around, working at their own paces. Lloyd shrugged as it seemed like it was the usual day at Borg Industries and could've sworn he heard Jay squeak a little with a smile to the engineering production. This was where they made everything, including Neuro's NeuroGear helmet. The four finally reached the end of the hall to have it slid open to their presence and entered to see Cyrus Borg and Neuro, waiting for them.

"Ah you're finally here!" Cyrus said, estactically to wheel himself to them and shake their hands. "So glad you can make for this is important and you just had to be here."

They glanced at each other to his enthuisam and watched him wheel himself to a computer and type on it frantically. What was this about then? "So what is it that you want to have us here at such notice?" Cole pried. "Seems like there is something you're hiding from us."

"Ah but I'm not though." Cyrus corrected. "Not anymore we're not hiding anything for you four. Neuro, if you'd please."

The silver haired man nodded. "After the destruction of the virus from our tower, we conducted our own investigation of the development of his body and sarcophagus. During the investigation, we found Lloyd's game cartridge when he delivered the antivirus and ran a binary scan on it."

"But during the scanning," Cyrus continued for the man. "I noticed something that I couldn't believe that was possible. All of that binary coding in that game, I noticed one code that was odd, but yet somehow survived to allow you four to leave the game. With that still alive, Neuro and I immediately got to work and let's just say. . .he's almost ready."

He's almost ready? Lloyd had to ponder to what they just said to turn to the others to their puzzling gazes. The blonde haired teen watched the man wheel himself to a capsule that stood tall with a computer monitor next to it and he could see his old Ninjago Online game cartridge installed in. His emerald green eyes widen with realization as it hit him to watch as Cyrus typed on the keyboards and turned his attention to the capsule as fog escaped from it; as if it was thawing.

The capsule hissed as the door slowly opened to have more fog escape from the darkness inside. A shaky, pale hand crept out of the capsule to have all four teens eyes widen as a body groggily climbed out to reveal a new teen in a white long sleeved shirt and jeans. He had platinum blonde hair with dark blue eyes that blinked in curiousity. Their jaws dropped to the teen as they couldn't believe it with their very eyes. Back in the when they made a promise, it was finally coming true. He got out as well.

The new teen gazed around in his new surroundings with wide eyes with awe and engima and glanced at his hands. He was breathing heavy with shock as he clenched his hands a few times to then feel his face and hair to become quiet as he coud feel the fine hair on his fingertips. This was real to him. His dark blue eyes drifted to the awaiting teens as their smiles were wide with astonishment to keep gazing at his body. "Is-Is this what it's like to be out of the game?" Zane asked to see them nod. "This feels. . .so real."

Without replying, the four teens immediately tackled the android into a pile to laugh in the heart warming reunion. Zane took a moment to understand what was happening in the affection and soon started laughing along with them. The five couldn't believe it all now as they were finally out of the game together as a guild, just like how they promised to him when heading to Stiix. Now they can fulfill his wish to experience a life as a teen in Ninjago City and hangout together. Despite being trapped in a virtual world for survival, the five of them found themselves together in different paths, but with the same goal. And in the end, they were back together as the guild they became.


End file.
